Gaffer hoping to keep home record going against The Shakers
Shrewsbury Town Manager Paul Hurst is hopeful that Town can keep their unbeaten run going when they take on Bury on Saturday.Town are unbeaten in their last four and have conceded just once at home since Paul arrived at the club in October.
Bury sit just two places below Town in the League One table and Paul is expecting a tough test.
“I think they are all difficult games for different reasons”, said Paul.
“Maybe if we could have played them a month ago everyone would have been a bit more confident of the outcome but I’d have still been guarded against that because I think when someone’s been on that kind of run the law of averages suggests they are going to come through that at some point.
“Confidence looks like it’s coming back into the players and as a team and they’ve made a couple of signings themselves. And, with James Vaughan, when you’ve got someone in that kind of form, even if you go a goal behind, if you can get the ball into the box enough he’s going to score a goal.”
“But, it would be nice to see the table on Saturday evening and see that we are still above Bury, keep this little run going that we’ve started and keep the home for going.”
However, Paul was quick play down the importance of the game when asked if this was the biggest of the season so far.
“Preparations won’t be different for this game than any other”, Paul said.
“We’ll certainly have done our homework, I watched a lot of them yesterday, but I feel like the first games against Barnet and Oxford felt important just to try and get off to a good start as a new manager.”
“It would be great to carry this run on and get another victory, it would be fantastic, but it’s not going to be decided on Saturday, so there’s no feeling of added pressure or anything. Depending on what position you are in when you get to six games remaining then the pressure is really on.”
Also, Paul is hopeful that Saturday’s game won’t be a repeat of the game at Bury earlier in the season and is calling on his players to remain disciplined.
“I’ve been made aware of what happened”, Hurst said.
“Discipline is key anyway and I think that is something that is improving for us. I said from word go that I wanted things to improve and that needs to continue because in these types of games, when people build it up, things can get out of hand.
“The message will be there about playing with their heads fully committed. Not getting involved in anything silly, concentrating on the game in hand and not letting and side issues distract them.”
Meanwhile, Paul confirmed that the squad had a clean bill of health for the first time in weeks as AJ Leitch-Smith returned to training for the first time since before Christmas.