Graham Turner: We do not fear League One
Ecstatic Graham Turner today pledged Shrewsbury Town will "relish" life in League One – as he saluted his promotion-winning heroes.
Ecstatic Graham Turner today pledged Shrewsbury Town will "relish" life in League One – as he saluted his promotion-winning heroes.
Turner and his squad continue to bask in the glory of clinching Shrewsbury's first promotion within the Football League for 18 years courtesy of Saturday's 1-0 triumph over Dagenham.
Meetings with fallen Premier League giants Coventry, Portsmouth and – potentially – either Sheffield United or Wednesday are now amongst the assignments on the 2012-13 agenda for Town.
One of the Town chief's first priorities once the promotion furore has died down will be to resolve the future of his out-of-contract players, who included leading scorer James Collins, captain Ian Sharps, his fellow central defender Shane Cansdell-Sherriff and goalkeeper Ben Smith.
And, while Turner is mindful of the step-up in quality now awaiting Shrewsbury, he insisted Town will thrive on the challenge.
"We will start planning and there is obviously a difference," said the Town boss.
"We went up with Hereford and came straight back down, as Dagenham did, so there is a significant difference in the quality of teams and we have to be prepared for that.
"It's a difficult League to go into because there are some big clubs in there, but we won't half be relishing the challenge."
Turner believes his side's promotion was just reward for the squad's efforts since returning to pre-season training in July.
"The players have worked tremendously hard throughout the season," he added.
"We set some principles and objectives out at the start – mostly the players' ideas – and through the season they have adhered to it.
"They have worked very hard and had a good attitude to things and deserve their success."
Turner insisted his second promotion with Shrewsbury had a different feel to his first success with the club 33 years earlier.
"You look back to 1979 and we weren't expected to get into the Championship," he added.
"Now, the infrastructure is in place and it's a good club with solid foundations and deserves to be playing at a higher level."
See also:
- Weve done it! Shrewsbury Town up after 15 years
- Shrewsbury Towns promotion party in video
- Shrewsbury players celebrate promotion in pictures