Paul Hurst keen to improve local links with Shrewsbury Town neighbours

Town received excellent feedback from West Bromwich Albion following the successful loan of Welsh hotshot Tyler Roberts last season.

And Hurst believes it is natural to build close ties with your neighbours, particularly with a number of high level Football League clubs within the West Midlands and Staffordshire.

The boss is determined to create a reputation for the Montgomery Waters Meadow where clubs are encouraged to send their young talent to develop and progress.

"We want good relationships with all of those clubs," said Hurst.

"Whoever comes here we just want to be spoken about well as a football club. Forget me, just the club itself.

"Did they get looked after? Was where they were put up a decent standard? Was the physio and training good? There is all of that to it."

Hurst leads his charges into their first Meadow friendly of the summer today as Steve Bruce's Villa – buoyed by an expected 3,500 following – head to Shrewsbury.

The boss has so far brought in four loanees this summer, Ebou Adams and Carlton Morris from Championship Norwich, Dan James from Premier League Swansea and England youth and Manchester United shot-stopper Dean Henderson.

And Hurst, who will target one more loan signing, is keen to progress the careers of the young quartet to help boost Town's reputation.

"The local clubs, in particular, you'd like to build a good relationship, but football reaches out far further than your neighbours," he added.

"Whoever comes in we want to make a good impression. It's an opportunity for us a club to showcvase what we're about – and the training ground will do that.

"Hopefully that word would spread. Darren Moore (Albion professional development phase coach) came down last year and he phoned me after the season had finished and we had a good chat.

"He said they have a number of players they'll look to place out again and he'd certainly put in a good word for us.

"He was very pleased with how Tyler's loan went. Hopefully that relationship stays strong but it might be that nothing quite fits (with Albion) or I don't fancy something."

Town's popular FanZone will not be in action for today's visit of Villa.