Steve Leslie, the midfielder who has found first team chances hard to come by at Shrewsbury Town this season, has been given the green light to go out on loan by boss Graham Turner.
Leslie, who signed a new one-year deal at the Greenhous Meadow during the summer, has only featured once at senior level this season, when he played in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy defeat at Walsall at the end of August.
Now Turner is prepared to allow Leslie to spend some time away from the Greenhous Meadow in the hope it may enhance the local lad’s prospects of pushing for a first team place with Shrewsbury.
Leslie, who was born in Glasgow but moved to Shrewsbury at a young age, enjoyed a productive loan spell at League Two rivals Hereford United last season.
“We’ve just put a circular out because of his lack of first team football that he would be available for loan if anybody wants to take him in at the moment,” said
Turner. “That’s reluctant because I don’t particularly want him to go.
“But he did very well at Hereford last season and sometimes foramonth to go and get games somewhere else will get him back into a better state for us.
“It would be for the benefit of both club and player if he could get four or five games in a month and come back to us.”
Turner, meanwhile, has warned his side not to treat lowly Barnet lightly when the Londoners, managed by former Northern Ireland boss Lawrie Sanchez, head to the Meadow on Saturday.
Town slipped to fifth in the League Two table following Friday’s 3-0 defeat at Southend, but Turner is hopeful his players will react in the right way.
“We’ve got a decent home record,” said Turner. “It’s not a case of getting carried away because we lost a game 3-0 – two of the goals came very late so it distorted it a little bit – but it’s making sure we’re right for Saturday.
“We have to learn from what happened at Southend and put it right in time for Barnet.
“They have one or two threats despite their season so far and the reports we’ve had suggest it’s not going to be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination.”
Turner has a healthy respect for pacy winger Mark Marshall, who played under him on loan at Hereford, and ex-MK Dons striker Izale McLeod.
“If we don’t treat the game right, we could be in trouble,” he said. “We’ve got to be ready for as hard a game as we’re likely to meet at home all season.”
Striker James Collins is available as he does not link up with the Republic of Ireland under-21 squad till Sunday for their Euro qualifier in Liechtenstein next Tuesday.
But Tom Bradshaw is ruled out having reported for Wales under-21 duty.
They take on Montenegro on Saturday and the Czech Republic next Tuesday with both matches at Wrexham.
Turner added he had plenty of selection options as he contemplated who to include in his side against Barnet.
“We were below what is expected at Southend, but the bigger picture is we’re in the top five with a home game to come,” said the manager, who celebrated his 64th birthday yesterday.
“The players have generally done reasonably well this season. There’s a lot of considerations before finally deciding on the line up.
“It’s whether there’s one or two performers that need to be left out and have a breather.”
by Stuart Dunn