New faces bring extra boost to the Town squad
Graham Turner is pleased how the recent arrival of a string of new faces have added to the competition for places within his Shrewsbury Town squad.
The manager makes no secret of the fact he hopes to bring in at least one more new addition before the end of the month but he's encouraged with what he's been able to do so far.
Delighted to have recruited Dave McAllister from Sheffield United on a two and a half year deal, GT is also happy to have extended the loan of young defender Cameron Gayle from West Brom as well as drafting in Charlton central defender Yado Mambo and Watford midfielder Steve McGinn on loan for the rest of the season.
GT said: "What it's done with Yado, Cameron Gayle, Steve McGinn and Dave McAllister coming into the club is it's certainly added that competition for places and I think it gives the dressing room a boost when the others see new players coming in.
"They want to rise to the challenge of keeping their place in the team so it's not a bad thing to have a group of new signings come in.
"I'm hoping that we haven't finished there as we're still trying to work on bringing at least one more player in before January closes.
"It's proving harder than we expected but it took something like two months to get the Dave McAllister deal settled so things are not just done instantly.
"But supporters will recognise where I think we need strengthening. They won't need me to tell them and that work to strengthen that department in the team will continue."
The manager added he had been impressed with what he's seen so far of former St Mirren man McGinn who will hope to press his claims for a starting role in the first team in this afternoon's reserve team clash at home to Morecambe.
Mambo and Gayle, his fellow loanees, will also play against the Lancashire club.
"Steve had couple of years out with his injury so it was a case of us easing him into things," added GT. "He got time on the pitch at Scunthorpe and against Hartlepool.
"I'm sure he would tell us that he hasn't come here to play reserve team football. He's come to get himself fully match fit for Championship football and he's looking a decent player from what we see in training.
"His pedigree, his record is very good up until the time he got injured so we're looking to get himself fully match sharp, match fit.
"I think some of the training sessions we've had have taken him a little bit by surprise with the pace of them, the intensity of them, but as the days go by he will get better and I'm sure he will be a terrific addition to us for the rest of the season."
"Yado obviously got on at Coventry for a couple of minutes but then he was ill so he missed the trip to Scunthorpe and a week or so of training.
"He's been back into it for a few days now and he's got to stake a claim for a place in the first team."