Shrewsbury boss Paul Hurst insists promotion talk is foolish

Town extended their remarkable unbeaten run into double-figures with Tuesday night’s last-gasp win at Doncaster, helping them to create a four-point lead at the top of League One.

On the back of consecutive relegation scraps, Shrewsbury are enjoying their best ever start to a Football League campaign, but Hurst refuses to get suckered into any talk of pursuing promotion.

Second-placed Wigan are four points further back, while the gap to the play-off positions is nine points.

Hurst said: “We speak in the dressing room and in the training ground about what we can achieve – but without being a total pessimist I think any talk of promotion would be silly and very foolish.

“Every game is a massive test. At the minute we deserve what we’ve got but it has been close on a number of occasions.

“We know on some days it’ll go another way.”

Today's visitors to Montgomery Waters Meadow, Scunthorpe, sit fifth after five wins, four draws and just one defeat from their first 10 games.

Graham Alexander’s side defeat record is second only to unbeaten Town in the division. The Iron have comfortably the tightest defence, having only shipped three goals in 10 games.

“We’ll try and make it 11 because you want it to be greedy and you never want it to stop,” added the Shrews chief. “It’s been a while since I’ve had to drive home or sit on the coach and reflect on a defeat.

"Fingers crossed we can do that often, but we’re not silly we know at some point it’ll come to an end it’s just trying to postpone that as long as possible.”

Town have only gone 11 games unbeaten in the third tier or above twice previously, in 1975/76 and 1959/60.

"I think it's the best (run) I've had as a manager," Hurst said. "I've been in charge of some successful teams thankfully, I can't really remember a run like this."