Shropshire Star

Omar Beckles: Best of me still to come at Shrewsbury Town

Omar Beckles believes Shrewsbury Town fans are yet to see the best of him after two years at the club.

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The big defender played 47 games last season, many in his unfavoured left-back position until February, but believes he was coming into form as the season ended.

The 27-year-old arrived at Shrewsbury in 2017 as a highly-regarded centre-half and was named in the League One team of the season as a left-back in 2017/18.

Beckles still has a year left on the three-year deal he penned when joining Shrewsbury and is certain there is still more for Town fans to see from him – and believes that will come in the heart of defence.

When asked if Town fans had still not seen the defender at his consistent best, Beckles replied: “Definitely. I know what I’m capable of and no-one’s really seen the heights I can truly hit when I get a consistent run of games in my position.

“I’m just hoping I’ll be able to get a good pre-season and run of games in my position and show it.

“You want to be playing in your position and you want to be playing it consistently.

“So it took me a while to get in that flow. I didn’t play my position more than four times in a row until Gillingham and that’s in two seasons. So obviously it’s going to take a while to get your best of form. I feel I started to get glimpses of that towards the end of the season.”

Beckles has made 94 appearances for Town in two seasons and, while he does feel disappointment at being used outside of his natural position, the Londoner is happy to have been a regular.

“I think I’ve got over 40 starts surprisingly – it didn’t feel like it at all with the amount of times I was on the bench,” he added.

“It’s nice to get that at the end of the season. A lot of teams and people will look (at games played) and looking back on my career I want to know I’ve played games.

“It’s the plan to progress. Nobody wants to be ambling and playing for nothing to the end of the season.

“We really want to be challenging and getting wins, hopefully we can do that.”