Graham Turner is hopeful his busy summer of recruitment will reap reward when Shrewsbury Town kick off an eagerly awaited League Two season at home to Bradford City on Saturday.
Turner is looking forward to taking charge of a Town home league game for the first time in 26 years – the last one was a 3-0 win over Derby County in the old second division in May, 1984 – and he’s delighted he’s been able to complete the signings of nine new players since returning to the club.
His two latest additions, former Huddersfield winger Lionel Ainsworth and ex-Crewe central defender Danny O’Donnell, now join the race for places to start against Peter Taylor’s much fancied Bradford in front of an expected bumper Greenhous Meadow crowd.
“We all know what we want from this season and we all know what supporters would expect,” said boss Turner. “What I can say is we will attempt to get the ball down and pass it.
“We’ve attempted to bring good players into the club and get them organised. If all goes well it should be sufficient to put us in the promotion race.
“That’s all we can promise at the moment, a brand of football the supporters will enjoy watching.”
Turner stressed it was an attractive start to the season for Town fans with Bradford’s visit swiftly followed by a Carling Cup first round tie at home to Charlton Athletic on Tuesday (7.45pm).
“I think they are two big challenges for us,” he confirmed. “Bradford will be among the front runners and then we pit our wits against Charlton, a big club in the first division.
“They’re two games I would be expecting supporters to be licking their lips about and looking forward to. Certainly, the players will be.”
Turner added he was pleased with the quality of the players he had been able to entice to the Meadow with latest signings Ainsworth and O’Donnell joining new skipper Ian Sharps, Ben Smith, David Raven, Mat Sadler, Mark Wright, Matt Harrold and former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Sean McAllister in a new-look squad.
“We’ve got competition for places and one or two promising young players who will be on the fringe of things,” he said.
“It looks quite a well rounded squad. You’re never satisfied as a manager, you always want one more player, but it seems to be we’ve done some reasonable business throughout the close season.”
Winger Ainsworth, 22, has the potential to be a real crowd favourite having come on board from Huddersfield, with the player admitting he produced the best form of his career under Turner at Hereford.
“He gave me the opportunity when Derby let me go at a young age,” said Ainsworth.
“He believed in me and lucky enough I was able to take up the challenge of playing in League Two, doing very well and going on from there.
“I just want to get back playing to how I was a few years ago. It was the best point of my life when I was playing at Hereford and hopefully I can do that again here.
“He’s a good manager, he knows what he’s doing, and he gets all of the players in his team up for games. Everybody responds to him in the right way.”
The respect is clearly mutual with Turner, who addressed around 300 fans at a question and answer session this week, adding: “Lionel’s got good ability, terrific pace, he can provide chances for other players and he can score himself.
“If he puts it all together he’s going to be an outstanding player for us.
“We’ll encourage him to take full backs on and get into goalscoring positions. The rest of it is up to him.”
Turner knows what his side can expect in League Two and fully expects it to be an open division this season.
“It’s difficult to pick out sides and I don’t think there’s anybody who will do a Notts County,” he added. “You’ve got solid outfits like Port Vale and Bradford while the teams to have come down like Wycombe and Gillingham could be a threat. Oxford have come up with Stevenage who will be an unknown and their enthusiasm will keep them going.
“Hereford have taken in a lot of good players so there’s a lot of solid sides.
“There will be one or two surprise packages, like Dagenham last season, but I wouldn’t like to predict any of the front-runners this season apart from we will hope that we’re there.”
By Stuart Dunn