Dan Udoh: Shrewsbury Town prepared for start of League One season

The 24-year-old netted twice in the opening ten minutes of Salop’s 2-0 win at Exeter City on Saturday to cap what has been an impressive pre-season for him in a game that Steve Cotterill's men controlled.

Having scored what proved to be the decisive goal in their first outing, a 3-2 win at his former club Telford, the Nigerian then scored a late winner in the 2-1 triumph over Hereford.

And having been named in the starting line-up by Cotterill off the back of his good form, Udoh struck a first half double at St James Park to make it three wins in three in pre-season, and four in three games for the striker.

The Town forward was pleased with his goal-scoring contribution but said that the focus now turns to welcoming Burton Albion to the Montgomery Waters Meadow on Saturday for the action proper.

"It's obviously good to score goals and win pre-season games but it's more important to get fit and ready for the season ahead,” Udoh said.

“It has been a tough-pre-season, probably the toughest I've ever experienced as a footballer. I know some of the older boys have said the same thing. It's always good to win and hopefully we can take that into next Saturday.

"We are all feeling really confident going into the season. As a striker, you want to score goals and I've done that even though it's just pre-season. Now our main focus is coming in the league and that's where you want to be scoring goals.

"It's difficult to predict what we're going to come up against when Burton come to the Meadow but it's all about us. We are at home and we want to make our stadium a difficult place for anyone to play. We want to play well, give the fans something to enjoy and get the three points."

Udoh’s first goal came after good work by former Grecian Ryan Bowman, outmuscling the defence, before unselfishly squaring the ball to be tapped home from close range. His second came moments after Bowman had a shot cleared off the line, but City didn’t clear their lines, Udoh beat a man on the edge of the box, and then drilled home powerfully into the bottom corner.

The striker added: “For the first goal, I played the ball down the channel to Bowman. Like any good strike partner, he slipped the ball into me. The ball just touched me and thankfully went in. For the second, that area of the pitch is my favourite position when I'm getting the goal.”