Life of Brian: It looks good for Shrewsbury

A month into office, Shrewsbury Town's new chief executive Brian Caldwell is loving his new job – and his new life.

All this despite the stress of moving house and job some 300 miles away from the family home near Ayr in Scotland.

The 47-year-old father of five – all the children are grown up and back in Scotland – has settled into a house with wife Noreen, a manager for South Cheshire NHS, in Prees.

He said: "I've settled in quite quickly. I always found Scotland quite rural but Shropshire is even more so – it seems to take me ages to drive anywhere!

"That's apart from when we drove to Ikea last Sunday. We haven't sold our house in Scotland yet, so we've been getting by with maybe one frying pan and one pot.

"We got an unbelievable amount of stuff – chests of drawers, kitchen utensils, lamps, light shades – all the things you think you don't need because you've got them.

"But I can't bring them here because I'm trying to sell the house. The boys are living in it but they're at university and college in Ayr."

Ayr to Shrewsbury sounds an odd career succession, but Caldwell retained a long-distance interest in Salop.

His support of his home-town club was compromised when he was made redundant - three days before his wedding after a new board came in.

He said: "I actually kept an eye on Shrewsbury's results through the years as we sold Steve Kerrigan to the club and Glynn Hurst played here.

"I've always kept in touch with him since he was at Ayr."

Caldwell came from a similar-sized club in St Mirren from a similar-sized town in Paisley (population 70,000) to Shrewsbury.

But the similarities stop there, where matters outside football are concerned.

He added: "I'm trying to get used to how everyone is so much more relaxed here. You can cut someone up at a roundabout but no-one seems to bother – in Scotland, they'd be chasing you with road rage!

"It's a beautiful town and I feel really safe walking about. There are nice bars and restaurants and a really good choice, and it's really difficult to get a table on a Saturday night.

"You've got to book well in advance and we're not used to that."

Not surprisingly, Caldwell's feet have barely touched the ground and he is still learning about the club.

He said: "I'm still learning every day and still as excited as when I first came here – probably more so now I see the potential."

As we speak, there is the chatter of a conference going on in the Arthur Rowley Suite next door, evidence of a vital income stream to a modern-day football club.

He said: "It's a busy, busy place – there's so much that goes on here which is great because football only takes place 25 days a year so it's important what we do in the other 340 days.

"It's how we can get people to come back."

Caldwell is slowly starting to make his mark - a 50 per cent discount for Manchester United ticket holders for the Coventry game saw a take-up of 1,300 to help boost the gate to 6,023.

He has other plans to encourage more fans back and, having overseen St Mirren's move to a new training ground, has a vision of how he wants Sundorne to look.

He said: "I'm not going to make drastic changes straight away, I need to take an overview. I went to the Supporters Parliament and it went well.

"There are things we can improve but if you don't know, you can't fix it and anyone can contact me if they've got an issue or there's anything we can improve."