Graham Turner calls for Shrewsbury Town fan power

Shrewsbury Town boss Graham Turner has called for the sell-out away support to make their voices heard in Saturday's big local derby at Hereford United.

Town have sold their full allocation of 1,300 tickets for the 1pm kick-off at Edgar Street – the visitors aiming to strengthen their League Two promotion push while the hosts are focused on staying up.

Turner's switch from Hereford to Shrewsbury last season had already raised the stakes, but the appearance of former Shrewsbury boss Gary Peters as the Bulls' director of football has added an extra dimension.

Turner said: "It will be a good atmosphere.

"It will be an intimidating atmosphere with the crowd so close to the pitch.

"I had 15 years there and I feel I left the club in a good state, both financially and in terms of the players they had available.

"I felt I had done my time at Hereford and served the club well. You move on and it's now total concentration on Shrewsbury.

"It is one of the first results I look for after our own and I don't want to see a former club struggle, but the concentration on Saturday is very much on getting three points for us."

Meanwhile, Turner has admitted his delight at seeing a strong performance from Republic of Ireland under-21 international James Collins in last Saturday's 2-1 win over league leaders Southend.

Much has been made of the recent dip in form from Town's strikers – but Collins reversed that trend with a committed display capped by a well-taken penalty.

The Town boss said: "I thought he was magnificent on Saturday.

"I thought there were some good individual performances and players really had to dig in and work hard for the result.

"But James led from the front, he led by example and his work-rate and his ability to get hold of the ball was absolutely first class.

"He topped it with a goal – he was the one who was brought down for the penalty and he calmly stepped up and took it."

Town will be without Marvin Morgan after his red card against Southend.

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