Town manager Paul Simpson has added two players to his squad ahead of the loan transfer deadline with the addition of Michael Barnes and Martin Riley.
Barnes is a young winger/midfielder who is currently with Manchester United and Martin Riley is a young centre-back from Wolves who has recently been training and playing in the Town reserves.
Barnes has been with United since signing schoolboy forms in 2005 and has made the one first team appearance in the Carling Cup at Crewe. Simpson has been tracking the player for a while and has brought him in with an eye on next season: "I was aware of Michael Barnes at Man United and I believe he has been told that he won't be retained at United at the end of the season.
"It was something that I was going to assess between now and the end of the season by watching him in the reserves but the opportunity has arisen to get him in here. This means we can see him at close hand; we can get him involved in our teams and see whether he can be good for Shrewsbury town.
"I've signed him on loan until the end of the season and if he is what we are looking for then we will look to try and do something with him in the summer.
"He is a wide player who can play left or right though he tends to play on the left but he is predominantly right footed. I'd like to see him play down the middle as well as he has got the pace to be able to cause problems.
"He is an exciting player and has got great pace about him which I think we are lacking a little bit."
Martin Riley has been with Wolves since he was 13 years old and progressed through their academy and has been a regular in the reserves. He has been training with Town over the last month or so and has played in the reserves. Simpson has been impressed with what he's seen so far and wants to take a longer look at the player: "Martin is a young centre half who has been with us for quite a while now training and playing in the reserves.
"I've only seen him play in one reserve game and seen him training over the couple of weeks I've been here.
"I've seen enough that tells me that I want to keep and eye on him and take a closer look so we have signed him on non contract forms until the end of the season.
"That gives me another few weeks to look at him and decide if he's going to be right for the football club."
Since taking over the managers hot seat at Town Simpson has been taking the time to assess his squad of players. He added the experienced Graeme Lee to his defence last week and had mentioned about bringing in more experience but he's now happy with the squad: "Last week I was looking to bring an experienced player in but it wasn't quite right for us and didn't happen.
"I'm in a situation here where I have a lot of players that I need to look at and assess whether they are going to be right for us. I've decided to go with what we've got and keep an eye on all the players.
"Hopefully once we've got a win under our belt and virtually secured our place in the league for next season I want to see all the players. I want to try out different systems to see what they can cope with and to be able to see different bodies in there as well.
"I think it is only fair that the players who are here are given the chance to show me what they can do."
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