Town manager Paul Simpson continues the work to prepare for the upcoming pre-season. ShrewsWeb sat down with Simmo this morning to get the update on a number of things.

To start with we asked for his reaction to this morning's Carling Cup draw which has given Town a home tie with Roy Keane's Ipswich Town:"I think it's a wonderful draw against a club who are stepped in tradition and who always play good football.

"I'm sure that with Roy Keane in charge of them they will continue to try and play good football.

"It will be a tough test for us early in the season but a game that we will be looking forward to.

"The pre-season games will give us a bit of an eye opener by playing Leicester and West Brom to the standards that we need to be at.

"Last year we had the disappointment of going out in the first round of the cup and that isn't what I wanted.

"We know we will have to play to the top of our performance levels but if we can get through to the next round it will give us a big boost."

Last season's pre-season work included a trip away to Desert Springs in Spain for a training camp. This year Town have once again been able to work a trip to Desert Springs into the pre-season schedule. It gives Town the chance to get away but it will be hard work for the players and coaches: "We are going away again this year and I'm delighted that the chairman has allowed us to do this.

"Last year it was a big part of our pre-season and really helped us hit the season running.

"The facilities at Desert Springs are excellent and the way that we were treated was superb.

"The players know that they are going to be in for some hard work and it will be the same situation of 7am, 10.30am and 6pm sessions.

"It is a great opportunity to get everybody together and get everyone to realise the importance of this season to us.

"We have two new lads already, there is the possibility that the young pros will come out there as well but it gives everyone the chance to muck in together and learn to live with each other.

"Over the next season we will spend a hell of a lot of time together and it's important that we all get to know what people enjoy and what they don't like."

This season's Town squad will be the first to consist of the majority of players that Simmo has brought to the squad. It's also allowed him to look at the numbers in the squad as well as the quality. Last season saw him use a number of loan players and this season he is once again looking to use a number of loans where possible: "We are hoping to go with a smaller squad next season, we are working on a tighter budget than last year and it's a case that I want quality instead of quantity.

"I felt that we had far too many pros on our books and my job is to get a squad that is good enough to get us out of this division.

"We got a lot of injuries last season and had to get people in to cover that, hopefully we won't be as unlucky this year and won't use as many emergency loans.

"What I would like to try and do is get some longer term loans, players who have a real feel for the club and who want to be successful."

The recent Football League Chairman's meeting saw a number of new rulings come into place. One of these is the use of 7 substitutes so we asked Simmo for his thoughts on this: "In a way it is decent because when we go away we usually take 18 players with us. That means we get a situation where a couple of those are sat in the stand and we now won't get that.

"To be honest I was quite happy with 5 as that gave you enough options but 7 will give you more options.

"I think it was more that the Championship clubs wanted this so the rest of the clubs fall into line.

"You don't have to have 7 subs, you have the option of using 7 and if you want to use 5 you can still go with that.

"My thought at the moment is that it will make everything a little too crowded in the changing room and on the bench and whether I use all 7 every game remains to be seen."

To finish with we got the latest update on the how the discussions on the contract offers were going: "There's no update that I can make public as we are still talking about things.

"I have been speaking to the players whenever I can get hold of them, but some are still out of the country.

"At the moment the strength is in their court as they have until the middle of next week to make a decision. As we get closer to that date their strength tends to wain a little and things turn back into our favour.

"I will continue to talk to them and I'm hopeful that we are close on a couple of them.

"There are rumours flying around about players going here, there and everywhere but as things stand nothing is definite.

"I am still hopeful that they are all going to be coming back to us."