Freddie Ladapo ready to get Shrewsbury Town moving
Goal hero Freddie Ladapo has revealed he is ready to be Shrewsbury Town's main man this season – as he set himself a double-figures goal tally.
The on-loan Crystal Palace striker, who netted Salop's crucial winner in the weekend's success against Bradford City, scored three times in a loan spell for struggling Oldham before Christmas.
And his winner against the Bantams, which came during a man of the match home debut display, has him on the way to a target of at least 10 goals and to be a regular match-winner in blue and amber.
He said: "Definitely, I'm happy to be the man to get the club out of trouble. That's the sort of striker I am. People might like to think that I can offer more but I like to get the goals and be celebrating and getting the winners.
"I like to give everything, give the team a little breather when they need it, a break when I can make something out of nothing but, for me, I always feel like I should get the goals as well.
"I've always looked to get into double figures for this whole season so hopefully by the end of the season I can comfortably say I've reached the double-figures mark. We'll wait and see.
"You want to celebrate and give the fans something to cheer so I'm happy it all came together today.
"The performance definitely gives optimism we can move up.
"Obviously you're not always going to have the best spells, but you know you can always have a decent game and not be far from getting a win or a good draw."
Ladapo shone against the promotion-hunting Bradford, displaying the power, pace and ability that had Greenhous Meadow supporters off their seats with excitement.
He went into the match as Salop's only fit and available senior striker, with academy graduates Ethan Jones and Kaiman Anderson in back-up on the bench.
The 23-year-old, who only joined Premier League outfit Palace from National League South side Margate in March, linked well with Louis Dodds and often broke forward alongside the pace of Alex Rodman and then sub Shaun Whalley.
"We had a good counter-attack with the pace of the players, which was good," he added. "For the opposition it's hard when they've got players running at you. I'm happy that it worked well."
