Cooke in doubt for visit

Shrewsbury Town striker Andy Cooke looks set to remain on the sidelines as his side bid to stretch their unbeaten League Two run at Macclesfield tomorrow.

Former Telford and Burnley man Cooke has not featured since being stretchered off in last month's 3-0 win at Boston United with an ankle injury.

And although the early prognosis was good, his recovery has taken longer than expected and he has still not returned to full training.

That leaves boss Gary Peters with a straight choice between Derek Asamoah, Michael Symes and loan ace Leo Fortune-West for the two strikers' positions.

"Cookey has done a bit of work with us, but we have him down for Monday for a return to full training," the Town chief revealed.

"We'll have to see how he does today, and I wouldn't completely rule him out for tomorrow at this stage, but we won't take any risks.

"We've got Leo who has played four games and scored four goals, and you can't ask any more than that. We've got Derek Asamoah and Michael Symes as well, who are very different players, so we have options."

Recovered

Peters has been impressed by the way tomorrow's opposition Macclesfield have climbed away from the relegation zone after a shockingly poor start to the season that left them 10 points adrift of safety at one stage.

But he believes they would have recovered, even if Brian Horton had not been sacked and replaced with Paul Ince.

"I think Ince has done a good job - he's come in and seen what he thinks he needs to do with them," added Peters.

"But he's got a lot of staff there and he's had the full backing of the Board because they were in a desperate position.

"They started badly, but given time I'm sure Brian Horton would have turned it around. The last time they got in big trouble it was Brian they called for and he got them out of it."

l The away travel club are laying on a fourth coach to head for Moss Rose tomorrow, having already filled three 53-seaters.

Organiser Chris Smith expects a travelling support of around 800 to get behind Town at Macclesfield. To book a seat, call Smith on 01952-604742.