Paul Hurst talks about Dom, the injury situation and players out on loan
Shrewsbury Town are pleased to announce that Dom Smith has been recalled from his loan spell with Barrow.The 20 year old made six appearances in his spell with The Bluebirds winning 4 games and helping them up to fifth in the National League.
Dom has been training with Town during his loan spell and will now be available for the game against Southend United on Saturday.
New Town Manager Paul Hurst was pleased to get Dom back at a difficult time injury wise.
“We’ve got Ryan McGivern suspended at the weekend. Olly Lancashire is out. A couple of other defenders with knocks that aren’t definite for the weekend, so I think we need to look after ourselves,” said Paul.
“He hadn’t got back in the team at Barrow recently and if he’s not going to be playing then he’s better off here.
“It’s a new manager. I’d have thought that Dom would be happy to be back and in terms of him being here he can try and impress myself and Chris and force his way into our plans now.”
Paul admitted that Dom is a player he has tracked for a long time and someone he is looking forward to working with.
“He’s only a young player and Dom’s someone who first came to my attention four years ago,” continued Paul.
“I saw him play in a reserve game at Chesterfield and he did extremely well and I made a note of his name back then.
“I kept an eye on it and he’s certainly grown since then, but he’s someone we kept an eye on. Yesterday he trained with us and his attitude was excellent, so that’s what we want.
“He’s obviously a young player, but very hungry and I’m not going to say he’s going to play for definite, but he will be involved and we want to see him and try and have a look at him with us.
“Physically he’s got the attributes already, so we’re glad that he’s back with us.
“We are conceding quite a lot of goals, which is something we’ve got to put right very quickly and if that means having more options available to us then that can only been good for us.”
Hurst is also well aware of Town’s other loan players and is keeping close tabs on strikers Ethan Jones and Kaiman Anderson.
“I’m aware of them both and Kaiman was in yesterday training,” said Hurst.
“I thought he did well. I’m sure his confidence will be high at the minute and he’s out playing and scoring goals.
“I’ve heard a lot about Ethan. I saw that he’d gone to Tranmere. He’s found it difficult, but that’s not a massive surprise to me knowing what Tranmere have got in the forward line, so there will be no judgement on my part for the fact that he’s not playing.
“That is one that we will again monitor, but there is quite a few forwards here already, so he would probably go to the back of the queue to start with.
“But, that might change and I may decide to have a look on it and if he impressed it doesn’t bother me whether someone’s 16 or 36. If they are the best person for the job they will get their opportunity.”