Skipper Ian Sharps wants goal-happy winger Mark Wright to become a permanent addition to the Shrewsbury Town ranks – admitting: “I would love him to stay.”
Wright, whose six-month loan deal from Bristol Rovers is due to expire in January, illuminated the Greenhous Meadow with a brilliant hat-trick as rock bottom Hereford United were blown away 4-0 on Tuesday night.
He has now scored eight times in his last eight games and has rocketed to the top of the Town goal charts.
Now Sharps is keen to see the Wolverhampton-born wide man come on board on a full time basis and help Town keep climbing after the Bulls demolition lifted them to fourth spot in the League Two table.
“It’s entirely up to the gaffer and Wrighty,” said Sharps.
“I would love him to stay but that’s nothing to do with me. He’s a class player and other clubs are probably interested, but it’s up to him and the gaffer to sort it out.
“He was brilliant on Tuesday and I think he’s been fantastic for us all season. His class shone through against Hereford and he probably could have had more goals, but three’s enough.
“It’s important we don’t just rely on the front men to score – it was great to see Shane (Cansdell-Sherriff) get one on Tuesday as well – so for Wrighty to have contributed 10 is brilliant.”
Wright admitted he was loving life at the Meadow but remains unclear about what the future holds.
“I’m not really sure and nothing’s been said,” said the ex-MK Dons man.
“I’m here until January and we’ll see what happens then. I’m at Shrewsbury Town at the moment, I’m enjoying it, I’m playing well and scoring goals.”
Skipper Sharps added the midweek mauling of Hereford was timely given Town have no game this weekend owing to their agonising FA Cup first round exit at Southampton earlier this month.
They will return to action with a trip to Accrington Stanley on December 4.
“We spoke before the Hereford game about how long the break is,” said Sharps.
“To have gone 10 days without a game after a defeat would have probably been demoralising. Now we can go into it and refresh and get ready for Accrington.”
Sharps insisted the team spirit within the Town dressing room was top class and he believes that can help them reel in the three teams currently above them at the top of the table.
“Everyone gets on really well and there are no cliques,” he said.
“There’s a good togetherness and I think that showed on the pitch on Tuesday.
“When we defended, everyone was throwing their body in the way so that shows the willingness to win and we’ve got to try and keep it going.
“It was nice to keep a clean sheet and it was for the team, not just the back four. The gaffer’s been giving us a bit of stick for not keeping enough so it’s one of many hopefully to come.”
On the absorbing promotion race starting to take shape, Sharps added: “We can only control what we do.
“If we win our games we will be happy, but let’s look at the table in May and hopefully we’ll be in the top three.”
Boss Graham Turner, who yesterday managed to extend the loan spell of Bolton youngster Tope Obadeyi to January 8, added there could be an addition to the squad ahead of the latest loan window closing today (Thursday) at 5pm.
Clubs will not be allowed to enter the transfer market again until January.
“Anybody we bring to the club has to be better than what we’ve got,” said Turner.
“Clearly if we do any business we need to bring in somebody who will go straight into the first XI rather than the squad and that is a difficult task.
“There are not too many players who would be allowed out on loan who will do that for us.”
By Stuart Dunn