Graham Turner's joy at Cameron Gayle signing

The Town manager's attempts to boost his squad with an experienced hand before last night's deadline may have been thwarted, but he believes Gayle will strengthen his defence – although the youngster has yet to make his senior bow for West Brom.

The Birmingham-born player took Shrewsbury's loan contingent back up to five after Michael Hector and Jeremy Helan had their deals terminated. Defender Hector had already returned to Reading to train, while Helan was dropped for last Saturday's home game with Crewe.

Manchester City immediately sent the French winger to Championship strugglers Sheffield Wednesday.

"The difficulty is we wanted someone to come in and make an impact. But we've seen him (Gayle) play a number of times and I'm sure he will strengthen our squad," said Turner.

Gayle, who turned 20 yesterday, has been a reserve team regular at the Hawthorns, where he signed his first professioanl contract in the summer of 2010.

The youngster, who was once on the books of League One rivals Crewe, has mainly been deployed at right-back by the Baggies.

He joins a loan camp comprising Lee Collins, Jamie Proctor, Julian Bennett and Luke Rodgers, although only the latter two are likely to start tomorrow's game at Oldham.

Victory at Boundary Park will maintain Town's recent improvement as well as move them above the 18th-placed Latics.

And Turner added: "While it was upsetting to lose the three points at the end against MK Dons, it was a much-improved performance. We had a good shape and as we grew in confidence we passed the ball well.

"After beating Crewe last Saturday that was a disappointment, but if we're realistic about things and had four points been offered to us before the two games we would probably have taken it.

"But Oldham won in midweek and it will be a test of character again.

"We've got to recover quickly but the lads worked tremendously hard on Tuesday and they'll be ready."

n Town's youngsters earned a 4-2 win at Blackpool in a Youth Alliance fixture.