Town's head of youth Nigel Vaughan has been speaking to ShrewsWeb and today we speak to him about the youth sides' pre-season games.

Every year Vaughan arranges a number of testing games around the county and surrounding area for his young side. This season he's once again lined up some decent games which will see Town take on the likes of Hereford United, Newport County, Morda United, Ellesmere Rangers, Newtown and Shawbury United.

The games will be against Hereford United and Newport County's youth sides but the other games will be against the senior sides of the clubs Town visit. One part of the pre-season that will be missing will be the annual trip to Anglesey where the team stay away for a few days.

Vaughney is pleased with the games he's managed to arrange and is looking forward to his side getting back into action: "We've got a number of pre-season games set-up and every year we normally go to Anglesey but this year we aren't doing that.

"We start our programme of games on 19th July when we play Hereford United at home and then the following Friday we go to Morda United. I like to play teams that are local as I think it helps to promote Shrewsbury Town in the right way.

"The following week Newport County are coming up and they are bringing up an U16 and U18 side which is superb.

"We then are off to Ellesmere Rangers which will be a tough game for us as they had a superb season last year. Then we travel to Newtown and this will be an important week for us as we begin the final preparations before we hopefully start the PUMA Alliance fixtures on the 16th of August. Newtown is always a good game for us and they've beaten us three years on the trot so we have something to prove.

"Our other game sees us take on Shawbury United and that's a good local game at side where Delwyn Humphries has done a great job.

"There's a little bit of room to play another couple of freindlies but that's down to the manager in case he has anything else sorted for us."

Once again Vaughney will be pitting his young side against the senior sides of the clubs they visit. It is something he has always done and something that he feels aids the lads' development: "The lads we are bringing in this year are much stronger physically and their body fats are far superior to the other lads we've brought in during my time here. Do those points make player? Certainly not but it's a good starting point.

"The Centre of Excellence lads get fitness programmes through Steve Wheatly, Nathan Ring and Rachel Greenley and that shows they've been taking that information on board.

"Last year we finished bottom of the youth alliance, is where you finish the most important thing? The most important thing is about getting players thorough and the ironic thing is we finished bottom but the manager takes Jasbir Singh on a pro contract.

"The Alliance league isn't the priority, the priority is to produce players to play in the reserves and then for the manager to see something in them that will make him take them on as pros'.

"I think the first years that have come in have developed so much more under the Centre of Excellence's programme than the ones who have come before them.

"This puts them into a good position to be playing games and to play against sides such as Morda, Ellesmere, Newtown and Shawbury will be a great test for them."

July

Friday 19th - Hereford (h) - 11am
Friday 25th - Morda United (a) - 7pm
Tuesday 29th - Newport County (h) - 1pm

August

Friday 1st - Ellesmere Rangers (a) - 7:30pm
Saturday 9th - Newtown (a) - 2:30pm
Tuesday 12th - Shawbury United - 7:30pm