Town off to Devon

Shrewsbury Town will crank up their preparations for the new League Two campaign by taking part in a pre-season tournament in North Devon.

Town will compete in the South West Challenge Cup which begins on July 19 and runs for a week.

A dozen teams will line up for the annual event.

And, although the final line-up has yet to be confirmed, there will be a strong presence of Football League clubs from England and Scotland for Shrewsbury to do battle with.

There will also be non-League representation in the tournament, including four teams from the host county.

"The last two years we have taken the team over to Spain for warm weather training," said general manager and secretary Jon Harris.

"It's fair to say that the one thing missing from that was a competitive game.

"We decided that this would be our best option and the games will come at a good time for us in the preparations for the new season."

Progress

Shrewsbury will be guaranteed two games in Devon with the competition running on a round-robin format with four groups of three.

The winners of each group - and Shrewsbury are expected to be one of four seeds - will then progress to the semi-finals with the final being staged on Sunday, July 25.

The games will be played at Barnstaple, Bideford, Holsworthy, Ilfracombe and Torrington.

Meanwhile, Shrewsbury have announced their second home pre-season friendly with Tranmere Rovers visiting the Prostar Stadium on Saturday, July 31.

The League One side dramatically survived relegation on the final day of the season, and will include former Town loanee Joss Labadie in their squad after he signed a two-year-deal at Prenton Park.

Championship outfit Coventry, who yesterday unveiled Colchester boss Aidy Boothroyd as their new boss, visit Shrewsbury on Tuesday, July 27.

By JAMES GARRISON