Paul Simpson remains hopeful of bolstering his Shrewsbury Town midfield options ahead of Saturday’s vital home clash with Darlington – but revealed his interest in Macclesfield’s Terry Dunfield has cooled.
With Kevin McIntyre the latest Town man facing a spell on the sidelines owing to a broken leg sustained in last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Port Vale, boss Simpson knows it’s important he dips into the transfer market as he gears up for a hectic run of matches.
He had been linked with a move for Macclesfield’s Dunfield, but while he admitted there had been an interest, he claimed there were other targets now ahead of him.
“He’s a player I’ve enquired about but the stories of making an offer of £50,000 are not true,” said Simpson. “We made a nominal offer for him which was turned down but it was nowhere near £50,000.
“Macclesfield decided to go public with it. I noticed at the weekend he wasn’t in their 16 but I honestly don’t know what’s going on.
“I made an enquiry, made an offer, they turned it down, and as far as I’m concerned that’s the end of it.
“I felt as though they were trying to get more than the lad is worth at this stage of his contract so I wasn’t prepared to go any further.
“Whether anything more comes of it I don’t know, but out of the players I’m hoping to get in this week I can say at this moment that Terry Dunfield is not one that I’m expecting to come in.”
Simpson had been keen to bring in an extra midfielder even before McIntyre’s misfortune, but the fact he’s expected to be out for around six weeks has heightened the need for reinforcements.
“We’re in a situation where I was looking to bring in a midfielder to go with what we’ve got anyway, so now it’s even more important,” he said.
“I’ve made enquiries about a number of players to take on loan. Their clubs are not looking to sell them but hopefully we’ll have someone in by the end of the week.
“I’ve been looking at young lads who have got ability because it’s very difficult to get experienced ones in, it’s as simple as that. We’ve just got to look around for players who are going to benefit us.
“We definitely need a midfield player and if we don’t get one in we’ve got people at the club who can go in there, but ideally I would like to bring in at least one midfield player to strengthen the squad as we’ve got a big run of games coming up over the next couple of weeks.”
Apart from trying to bring in new blood, Simpson – delighted to have winger Marc Pugh available after the FA overturned the red card he received last weekend – is busy preparing for Saturday’s eye-catching home clash against promotion rivals Darlington.
Town are currently ninth, the lowest they have been in a congested League Two table this season, but are just two points behind third-placed Darlington.
The Quakers are expected to include on-loan striker Liam Hatch, a player Simpson was recently keen on luring to the Prostar from Peterborough.
“He’s a good player, a handful and he’s effective at League Two level so that’s why I wanted to get him,” he said.
“I don’t really know what happened there because we made an offer to buy him and Peterborough decided to loan him out again.
“He’s a player we’re going to have to be on our guard against, and there are quite a few others so it’s going to be a tough game for us.”
Town will be chasing their first away league win since August when they travel to lowly Barnet on Tuesday night (7.45pm).
• See page 71 of the Shrewsbury Chronicle, January 22, for more Town news including an interview with new striker Nick Chadwick.