Shrewsbury Town closing in on January targets as Appleton seeks attacking reinforcements
Shrewsbury Town are "down the line" in conversations with multiple January transfer window targets, Michael Appleton has confirmed.
The Shrewsbury boss said he hopes strengthen his squad at the top end of the pitch in an effort to improve their goal return.
Salop have netted just 19 League Two goals so far this season ahead of today's trip to leaders Walsall, and Appleton is keen to address that issue when the transfer window opens in less than three weeks.
Asked whether their FA Cup prize and TV money would provide extra funds, Appleton said: "There's been no promise of that. All we've had is discussions about what targets might look like and potential players leaving the building.
"Those types of discussions will come around and happen depending on what it's going to cost to bring players in, what it's going to look like when we let players go out and somehow balance the books. We're not quite at that stage yet.
"We're certainly down the line with a number of hopeful potential targets that we believe can make a difference.
"I think the loan market is always going to be big for League One and League Two teams to try and make a difference in a short period of time in terms of 20 odd games or whatever it is once the window opens.
"I think we're no different. We need to shake it up a little bit, bring some quality to the group that will certainly improve us in that final third.
"I think after the first 10 games of the season, I think we've addressed to a degree the defensive side of it and the lapse in concentration errors.
"I think the top end of the pitch is where we need to be better and our conversion rate needs to be better.
"We need to turn half-chances into proper chances and chances into goals, and we haven't done that enough in the first 19 games. That's something that we'll try and look to get better at and rectify if we can by bringing in more quality."
Shrewsbury have been without forward Bradley Ihionvien after he underwent knee surgery.
Speaking after Shrewsbury's draw with Grimsby Town, Appleton added: "It's clear to see that we need to score more goals. We need to be a bit more creative in that final third.
"You don't need to be good at rocket science to work that out. And we'll try and improve that area as best we possibly can."
