Shrewsbury Town's next generation carry club's hopes

Shrewsbury Town's next generation carry the club's Shropshire Senior Cup hopes tonight.

Town boss Graham Turner will send the youth team – possibly supplemented by young first team squad members defender Connor Goldson and midfielder Luke Male – to The New Saints for the semi-final of the county knockout for top ranked teams.

The early timing of the fixture – and the fact the game will be played on the Astroturf at The Venue – has prompted Turner not to treat tonight's encounter as a fully fledged first team fixture.

Instead, Head of Youth Dave Hughes will select from his young guns as the two sides do battle for a place in next Tuesday's final.

"We are disappointed that we are having to play on Astroturf this early in pre-season and that is why the senior pros will not be going," said the Town boss.

"We made that clear to the Shropshire Football Association when we were first talking about the game.

"But it will be good experience for the young lads.

"I'm not sure what team TNS will play with them having another (Europa League) game on Thursday but there are a number of strong second years in our group this year so it will be interesting."

Meanwhile, Town's first team were back at the Greenhous Meadow today after a three-day training camp at RAF Shawbury.

And Turner was delighted with how the short pre-season trip had panned out.

"It was very good and exceeded our expectations," said the Town boss.

"There was no doubt the training was very tough but there was a great deal of variety and the RAF personnel did an excellent job.

"We were treated very well throughout our stay and it couldn't have gone better."

By JAMES GARRISON