Positive boss Graham Turner is confident his Shrewsbury Town players will “come back even stronger” after their unwanted mid-season break as they hope to get the green light to host Cheltenham on Saturday.
Assuming this weekend’s Greenhous Meadow clash beats the big freeze – and Turner is hopeful it will – 18 days will have passed since Town’s last match, the 4-0 demolition of Hereford on November 23.
Turner, one of four nominees for November’s League Two manager of the month award, admits it has been frustrating to go so long without a game, but he’s been encouraged by the response from his players and is backing them to maintain their challenge at the right end of the table.
“It is very unfortunate that the cold snap followed the weekend we had no game having been knocked out of the FA Cup so it does seem a long time,” said Turner. “It’s always a guess how we’re going to come back, but I think the way the players are looking, they will come back even stronger.
“There are always difficulties when we get a prolonged spell of cold weather with icy pitches, dangerous pitches, but we’ve adapted extremely well.
“Half of the training ground has been covered with frost covers so we’ve been able to get some work done on grass. We’ve got astroturf facilities, use of the Welti Centre and Sports Village, and we’ve also done some work on a golf course for longer running.
“The players have thrown themselves into the sessions with plenty of enthusiasm and I’ve been impressed with their attitude during a difficult spell.”
Turner feels the period of inactivity arrived at a particularly unfortunate time with Town collecting 11 points from the last 15 and hitting the heights to blow Hereford away thanks to a hat-trick from League Two’s fans’ player of the month Mark Wright.
“There was plenty of buoyancy around the place after the Hereford game,” he said.
“The players were full of it and that was a good performance. We wanted to keep playing but it’s happened and it’s affected other clubs as well.”
He knows the Meadow ground staff will be pulling out all the stops to try and ensure the Cheltenham game goes ahead and he’s also aware the Gloucestershire side would love to end Town’s unbeaten home record.
“The forecast is for it to get a bit milder before the weekend so we’re optimistic that we will play this Saturday. Cheltenham have had a good season so far. They’ve got a game in hand and if they won that they wouldn’t be far behind and could even go into the play-off positions.”
It’s a mixed bag for Turner on the selection front with David Raven and Lionel Ainsworth both fit again while Manchester City loanee Andrew Tutte is pushing for his Town debut.
But Exodus Geohaghon, the big defender on loan from Peterborough, and midfielder Craig Disley are both set to see specialists after injury setbacks.
“Exodus will see a specialist with the knee problem he picked up at Stevenage. It looks as though it’s going to keep him out for a little while,” said Turner, who this week allowed striker Kris Bright to leave the club by mutual consent.
“We’re also going to have Craig looked at by a specialist because there’s just a little bit of pain in his hip as well so we will get that looked at as a precaution.”
See page 47.
by Stuart Dunn