'Ridiculously' good Shrewsbury Town start has way exceeded Paul Hurst's expectations
Paul Hurst has admitted Shrewsbury’s stunning start to the season has vastly exceeded his expectations.
Hurst’s side went five points clear at the summit of League One and remained unbeaten with their seventh win from eight league outings as Oldham were downed 2-1.
Midfield man Jon Nolan was the match-winner for the second time in two games, netting with 25 minutes to go after Stefan Payne’s opener had been cancelled out by the hosts.
With Town fans in dreamland as they enjoy a record-breaking start to a League season, Hurst admitted the start was beyond his wildest dreams.
“It’s exceeding my expectations, ridiculously,” said a delighted Hurst.
“If we’d have taken maybe 12 points from 24 with four wins and four defeats then it’s not a bad start to the season with a total new group.
“But I didn’t put a number on it. I just wanted to see us play well and see how we settled into the league.
“It’s happened extremely well. Pre-season was great, beating Championship teams, but I’ve been involved in that before when it doesn’t transfer into what really matters in the league.
“For us it has done. Overall it’s great for everybody involved. We need it to carry on as much as possible
“We can’t feel we’ve achieved anything yet because we haven’t, other than a good start.”
Fifty points is generally used as a yard-stick for League One survival and Town edged to safety with 51 points last term.
They have already taken 22 points from 24 available this time around.
The boss added: “I’m not going to say any silly predictions about where we’re going to be, but the first target we spoke about – as in a long-term target – was to get to 50 points.
“At the minute we’re making a big dent in that, which is a positive. If we can get there a lot sooner than we have done in the past then we can look at it and see what is achievable. As much as we’re on a good run it can soon go the other way.
“Then if we took an even set of results, we’d all be happy with where we’re at still.
“There’s no doubt though, we’re causing ourselves an issue with people getting carried away and expectation levels really going through the roof.”
