"Everyone knows" Shrewsbury Town boss aware of magnitude of clashes

League One basement boys Town face a run of three fixtures against relegation rivals in the next two-and-a-half weeks beginning with the Gas tonight.

Rovers occupy the final safety spot with Ainsworth's side at Exeter - who are one place better off - on Saturday before a crunch home clash with fourth-bottom Burton on Saturday week.

Ainsworth maintains that all of his side's final 12 fixtures are important, but admits there is always more emphasis on preventing rivals from pulling further clear.

“All the games now are massive," Ainsworth said. “We have got 12 huge games. It doesn’t matter if we are playing Birmingham or Wycombe – who we still have to face – or Exeter, Burton or Bristol Rovers.

“We need to start picking up some points if we are to have any chance of survival.

“I don’t want to keep talking about the journey and the long-term. I want to focus on the present and try and pick up points and give us a fighting chance of staying up.

“We know, everyone knows, the games against the teams in and around us are crucial because not only do we get points, it stops them getting points.

“That will hopefully be enough at the end of the season to get us over the line.”

Following the run of fixtures against direct rivals Town face more challenging fixtures against Reading and away at current top two Birmingham and Wycombe.

“I’ve said before three games in a week is tough sometimes, and there will be changes, so I might make a few rotations in the games coming up," added Ainsworth. “But at the moment, everyone feels fit, everyone feels strong.

“They will try and keep possession, we know that. And they have an experienced striker in Chris Martin who has scored a huge amount of goals. He has got to be respected.

“But we have also got some dangerous players and some young players who are showing their worth now.

“That is brilliant. They are really coming through. And there is confidence among the lads even though we are in that bottom four. We still believe we can get out of this.”