Shrewsbury's Jordan Shipley eager to taste action again

He has missed their last three games with Salop picking up two draws and a win in that time.

But Shipley is looking forward to getting back out there today as they make the trip to Fratton Park to tackle Portsmouth while admitting he has been watching intently to see how his team-mates have got on.

“I went to the two home games, Carlisle and Oxford,” he said. “But I did not go to the Bristol game. I did still watch it at home on Ifollow.

“Any professional footballer finds it hard to watch the games when really you want to be playing.

“I was not involved so I was watching the lads and I was watching Briz (Aiden O’Brien) in my position to see how he did, and I thought he did really well.

“It is hard to watch, but at the same time I can’t wait to be back out there.”

Town currently sit on 46 points heading into today’s League One clash on the South Coast.

In the last few seasons teams have needed to get roughly near the 50-point mark to be sure of League One safety and Shipley does keep an eye on the table.

“You have a little look here and there,” he added.

“But you don’t focus on that because we know if we do our jobs, we know that we are going to be safe at the end of the day.

“So it is kind of just doing what we need to do to collect the points along the way and hope that the other teams will help us out.

“As many as possible. I can’t give an exact amount,” when asked how many points he feels Shrewsbury needs to stay up.

“There are five games left and we will try and aim for 15 points.”

Following the completion of today’s game Salop welcome Wycombe to the Croud Meadow – which will also be the return of former Shrewsbury captain Luke Leahy for the first time since he left in the summer.

Shortly after that, Town have away trips to Bolton and Charlton but end the season at home to Leyton Orient.