Town's players have been hard at work out on the training field as they start the preparation for next season Coca Cola League 2 campaign.

The lads have split their time between sessions at the Prostar but the majority of the work has been taking place at the training ground at Sundorne.

ShrewsWeb sat down with Paul Simpson after lunch today to get an update on a few things and on how things were going:"It's gone fantastically for them but has been really tough for them as the sun has shone on them all week.

"They've got on with it and have performed really well so I have no complaints at the moment."

On the injury front Town have not look too back with Grant Holt, Shane Cansdell-Sherriff and Chris Humphrey have been able to training all week.Things aren't looking too bad with only Dave Hibbert (foot) and Glyn Garner (shoulder) missing this week: "There have been no new knocks though we are still having to nurse Grant Holt through it and make sure that he is right.

"There was a little bit of sunburn from Thursday morning when they were doing the testing.

"The thing we need to do is make sure everyone is fit, we need to make sure Grant Holt is fully fit, we need to get Mike Jackson fully fit, we need Dave Hibbert back out on the training pitch as well as Glyn Garner back in training."

With training over today the focus has now switched to tomorrows trip to the training came at Desert Springs in Spain: "It is going to be physical but they have nothing else to worry about when they are out there.

"It is literally a case of walking to the training pitches, doing the work, walking back, eating then resting for the next session and it will be that right through the stay there.

"We'll even be doing two sessions on the day that we travel back and they will come back in a much fitter state than they went out in.

"A big part of the trip is the getting to know each other as we do have a number of players who are new to the club, new signings and young pros.

"The rooms have been selected so it's not all mates together; it's new player, senior player, young pro along with someone else.That will mean everyone will muck in with each other and look out for each other and hopefully it will work."

One player who won't be getting on the plane tomorrow is Chris Humphrey who is still mulling over a new contract.Simmo is still hopeful that Chris will sign for Town but at the moment he's planning for pre-season without him: "Chris has decided that he wants to give him a little bit more time for decisions to come and I respect that.

"He's had a couple of clubs who have been enquiring but other than Blackpool there isn't anyone else who has been in touch with us about taking Chris Humphrey.

"Until a club agrees something with us or that they are prepared to take a chance at a tribunal they Chris will stay here.

"As he hasn't signed a contract I can't prepare for the season with him in my mind just in case he does go.

"Chris will training with the youth team to keep his fitness right and we will see what happens over the next week."

Simmo has had a productive week with a number of his targets agreeing to join the club.He's happy with the balance and feel of the squad at the moment and the options at his disposal: "I'm very happy with the way the squad looks and with the quality that they have shown in training as well.

"What we have now in my opinion is a better mix then in last season and an improvement in the quality of them.

"I'm hoping that they can all stay fit and that they will be able to do the job that we want them to."

One position that fans are a little concerned about is the left-back slot that has been vacant since Neil Ashton departed.Simmo isn't too concerned as he has a number of options in mind at the moment: "We've got Shane Cansdell-Sherriff who can play very well at left-back and has played there at League 1 level, we've got Kevin McIntyre who has spent a lot of his career playing at left-back and I still believe that Steve Leslie can play at left-back, he's got the quality and energy in his locker to do that.

"There are three options there but if we get to a point where I think none of those three are suited for that position then we'll look at improving that and changing it.

"We've got enough in centre-back to cope, we've got one experience right-back and that maybe one position we may need to look at strengthening.

"We've got players who can play wide right, players who can play wide left, a whole host of lads who can play in central midfield and a good mix of centre-forwards."

Town's squad is currently 22 and is a good mix of experience, youth and new faces.It's a number that Simmo is happy with but he's more than happy to look to bring in new faces or loans if the need arises: "Everybody knows the loan system is available and I thought we had some good loan signings come in last year.

"I personally don't think there is any shame in using the loan system, if we can take a player for a month or so on loan and it helps I don't see a problem.

"It worked for Brentford last season as they worked it particularly well, for Wycombe at the end of the season and for Bury so why shouldn't we look at that to make this club successful."

When the squad returns from Spain the next date in the diary will be the start of the pre-season games.The first game is against Northwich Victoria and this will be followed quickly by the Shropshire Senior Cup game against AFC Telford: "The first one we look to is the Northwich game and everyone who is fit will take part in that game.The aim is to get them 45 minutes and that should be a good start to the programme.

"After that we start to build the games up and have some tough tests before the season kicks off.

"We've got the game against Telford and as it is an official game we are restricted to the number of subs that we can use but by that game I feel most of the lads will be ready to play 90 minutes by then.

"We will use that game as a fitness game, we know that it is local game and there is something at stake but these games are all about making sure everyone is ready for August.

"We don't need to worry about Telford as they aren't one of our competitors so although I want to win the game I'm going to make sure we use it as a training exercise to prepare for the Burton game."