New goalkeeper Ben Smith is targeting his first clean sheet for Shrewsbury Town as Graham Turner’s men bid to continue their exciting start to the season at Macclesfield on Saturday.
Smith, a recent arrival from Doncaster Rovers, has been delighted to get the nod from boss Turner to start the opening two games of the campaign.
He was disappointed to be beaten three times in Tuesday’s Carling Cup cracker as Town hit back to pull off a sensational 4-3 victory over Charlton Athletic.
But he’s thrilled to be playing in such a vibrant, attacking side and insists the shut outs he wants will start to arrive – beginning, he hopes, at Moss Rose this weekend.
“It was obviously disappointing to concede three on Tuesday the way we did, but I’m sure we can start working on that in training and hopefully get some clean sheets under our belt,” said Smith.
“It will come and it’s still early days with the back five. It’s a whole new back five and we’ve all come from different places, but it will gel eventually and if we’re solid at the back, we can allow the lads further forward to do their jobs and we’ll have no problems.”
Smith was restricted to just 18 games in four seasons at Championship club Doncaster, and now he’s keen to start playing more regularly at Shrewsbury.
“This is a fantastic move for me,” he said.
“I’ve come here hoping to play some games and to get a couple of seasons under my belt. This is a fantastic club to come to as it’s got ambition and wants to go places. There’s not many clubs like that these days.
“It reminds me of Doncaster when I first went there and this is a great opportunity as Shrewsbury have got all the resources here to hopefully do well.
“I had a fantastic goalkeeper in front of me at Doncaster in Neil Sullivan who’s top class and has played at the highest level so it was hard to get past him. The gaffer at Doncaster decided to give him another year and told me I needed to go and play as I’m 23 now, coming up 24, so I need to show people what I can do.”
Smith knows he has to play well to hold on to his place with Chris Neal waiting patiently for his chance.
“It was a tough battle with Nealo in pre-season and a tough call for the gaffer, but I hope I can keep my place,” he said.
“I’ve got the shirt at the moment and I want to do my best for the team. If we keep getting results like we did on Tuesday we should be fine.”
Smith said the style of the fightback against Charlton epitomised the spirit quickly instilled by Turner, which should stand Town in good stead.
“It was a fantastic game and it just shows the character we’ve got in our changing room that no matter what teams chuck at us we can come back and give a great performance,” he stressed.
“It was a fantastic result, just like it was against Bradford, and it’s given us confidence to hopefully kick on and keep it going.”
Town will again be without the suspended Kevin McIntyre at his former club Macclesfield, but Turner otherwise has a full strength squad to choose from.
“It will be our first taste of away football this season,” said Turner.
“We’ve got to make sure we don’t get carried away with what happened on Tuesday night.
“This is one of those games where if you’re going to be successful you have to take a point or three, and that’s not being disrespectful to Macclesfield.
“They’re obviously one of the smaller clubs in the second division, but no doubt they will be no easier to beat than anybody else. At this stage of the season they’re all tough games and I expect that again on Saturday.”
By Stuart Dunn