Shrewsbury Town appoint Andy Johnson as new fitness coach

Johnson, who left Birmingham City recently, has worked with Gary Rowett at the Blues and Stoke City.

He boasts more than 10 years experience in the industry and has also previously been at the Norwich academy and Blackburn Rovers.

The coach replaces Marc Lindsey, who left Town after two years in the role.

Boss Sam Ricketts said: “Andy Johnson has got a really good pedigree.

“He’s worked under a few managers I know and a few staff I know very, very well.

“For me fitness is a real necessity in football, it’s something I really strive for and I like to be the fittest team we can be and we need fit players to do that.

"With that, we need to make sure what we’re doing in training every day is making the players as fit as they can be. Andy will be a really big part of that.

"He knows what the players need to get up to peak fitness.

“We have the live data so we can see how far and hard players are training. If they’ve not hit the targets that are required then they can top the running up at the end of the training. Little things like that will hopefully make a massive difference to our performance levels this season."

Johnson will join up with Ricketts' squad for pre-season training on Monday. Players have been into Sundorne today and tomorrow to sort new kit fittings.

The boss added: "We’re looking forward to getting him in on Monday, I’m sure the players won’t be as pleased to see him as I will be.

“He’ll certainly be pushing them to reach new heights physically. We need to be able to press and run on a Saturday but also on a busy Saturday, Tuesday schedule.”