Boss Paul Simpson is hopeful loan duo Waide Fairhurst and Jamie Devitt will recover from illness in time to help Shrewsbury Town give their shellshocked fans something to cheer at home to lowly Torquay United on Saturday.
The young duo have missed training this week owing to a sickness bug but Simpson believes they should be available to make a timely return after being ineligible for last weekend’s hugely disappointing FA Cup defeat against part-timers Staines. Right back Dean Holden is also set to come back into the side after serving a one-match ban.
Simpson revealed he was now planning to hold talks with Doncaster and Hull this week to try and keep striker Fairhurst and winger Devitt at the Prostar for longer.
“We’re hoping they’ll be okay to train today (Thursday),” said Simpson. “Jamie hasn’t been able to train yet this week and Waide phoned on Tuesday saying he had got the bug.”
On the prospect of holding onto them for longer, Simpson added: “I’m planning to talk with both of their clubs this week. Their loans finish on November 24 after the Bury game. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen of them so far and if there’s a possibility of extending it I would like to do it.
“If we can’t then I definitely need to look at other players because the loan window closes at the end of November through to January 1.”
Simpson has outlined the importance of a good result against third bottom Torquay and winning back the support of the fans after the Staines cup upset. “It’s about getting ourselves going again,” said Simpson, who this week transfer-listed two of his summer signings in strikers Nathan Elder and Kris Bright and also cut short midfielder Joss Labadie’s loan spell from West Brom.
“As far as I’m concerned, too much has been said by me, and players have also passed opinions on where they’ve gone wrong (last weekend).
“The only thing we can do now is move on from it. It’s disappointing that we’re having to be moving on but the next thing now is Torquay at home. I don’t even want to talk about reactions because that will still annoy me.
“I want us to go and perform and play to the levels that I believe we’re capable of, go and show the professionalism that we’re capable of and basically we’ve got to try and win the support back because we’ve lost it, as simple as that, with what we’ve done and we’ve only got ourselves to blame.”
Simpson is waiting to see what level of interest there is in Bright and Elder while he’s also prepared to let several youngsters go out on loan.
“The young players have done well for us but if I’m being honest they’ve been involved in more games than I wanted them to,” he said.
On Elder and Bright, who will continue to be considered for selection, Simpson added it had not been discussed whether Town would be chasing transfer fees.
“We paid money for Nathan Elder and if it’s right hopefully we’ll get something back for him,” he said. “At this moment in time we can’t do a permanent transfer. It will have to be a loan so we’ll wait and see.”
Midfielder Terry Dunfield was due to begin his comeback for the reserves at Macclesfield last night (Wednesday) alongside striker Omer Riza, but Craig Disley missed out after a setback which is likely to keep him out for another couple of weeks.
By Stuart Dunn
