Midweek focus: Shrewsbury Town striker not getting carried away by upturn in form

After a slow start to the season, a run of 11 points from six League Two fixtures has propelled Salop to the fringes of the play-off picture, but Lloyd, who has notched three goals in that run, says it can only be one game at a time.

“It would be nice to back up the win against Bristol Rovers with another one at Crawley, but we have to focus on another performance and then hopefully the result will look after itself,” said the striker.

“We’ve been really good across the last five or six games but we have to keep that going.

“Everyone thought we dropped three points against Exeter, two points against Colchester, and you can always look back at games, but we can’t do that.

“We have to look forward and at least we are in a position now where we have something to chase.

“At the same time, we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.

“What have we had? 11 games? That’s another 35 to go, which is a long way!

“We can’t afford to look too far ahead, and have to focus on the here and now.”

The atmosphere towards the end of Saturday’s win against Rovers at Croud Meadow, in which Lloyd struck the decisive penalty before seeing two of his team-mates sent off, was absolutely rocking.

While Lloyd admits it’s a moment and a feeling to build on, he knows the only way to keep inspiring the fans is through performances.

“The fans were magnificent again on Saturday,” he said.

“I am never a player who thinks, right, we need to do this to get the fans on board – the fans get on board by our performances and hard work.

“The Shrewsbury fans are a very fair bunch, and if we do that, they will always be there for us.

“Crawley is a long trip and one to look forward to.

“I scored a couple of goals there a couple of seasons ago which was an important result, but it’s a tough place to go.”

Town’s record in their five league matches at Crawley is somewhat mixed - with three of them being draws, including the last meeting being 0-0 six months ago.

Gavin Cowan’s men had secured their EFL status by that point, though it was the Reds who created the better chances.

There was also an astonishing 5-3 victory two years ago in League One, with Lloyd and John Marquis each bagging a brace, and Toto Nsiala also scoring - though then-boss Paul Hurst would survive just another fortnight before being sacked.

Crawley’s one victory in this fixture at Broadfield Stadium came in the first meeting between the sides in 2011 - Sergio Torres and Dean Howell scoring for the hosts before Mark Wright responded in the second half