Shrewsbury Town Ladies have signed 20 players ahead of the 2017/18 season.
Eight players have been retained from last season whilst a further four players have come through Town’s Regional Talent Club.
The new management team held two trial nights in recent weeks and Pete admitted it was a tough to decide which 20 players they would sign.
“We’ve done the trials process and seen what we’ve got and who wanted to come in to add to the squad and we’ve selected 20 initially with five players still on trial”, said Wilson.
“We ran two trial nights up at Shrewsbury College with anyone able to sign up and have a go. We had a number of girls from last season, a number of girls from our Regional Talent Club and a whole host of other players.
“We obviously had to make an assessment on all these players and say whether we were offering or we wouldn’t be, which hasn’t been the best process for us because it’s obviously not a nice thing to say no to somebody, but we think and we feel we’ve selected the right players now to achieve the goals of this season.”
The spine of Town’s side will be made up of those who have been part of the Town set-up over the last couple of years and Pete believes continuity is important.
“We wanted a core of players”, said Pete.
“We obviously want to bring the young players in and to have the next generation of Shrewsbury Town players coming from within the club, but to get promotion we have to have players that no what the club is about.
“You want that hunger. We want them to be saying ‘we don’t want the same as last year, I don’t want to finish fifth in the league and I don’t want to be runners-up in the Shropshire Cup’ - we want to actually challenge for it.
“If it’s a year too soon in the Shropshire Cup then so be it, but we want to be in the final, we want to make sure we get the league promotion first and foremost, and then there’s the FA Cup and the League Cup as well.
“So, there’s plenty to play for and it’s really important that they have been in with us last season so they know the disappointment and they say ‘I don’t want that again’.”
With 20 players already signed up and a further five players also remaining on trial, Town will have a big squad to choose from when the season gets underway, but Wilson believes competition for places can only be a good thing.
“I think it’s good from our perspective as coaches because we want that competitive edge”, said Pete.
“If players aren’t pulling their weight and aren’t playing as well as they should be then players will be taking their place, so there’s no easy ride for anyone and the players are all buying into that.
“We don’t want players that just turn up and expect their position, but likewise it is a long season and we are going to have injuries, we are going to have people away on holidays or have to work, so having a big squad allows us to always out a strong side out and we always have strength in depth.
“If we want to make a change to suit the formation we are playing or we are playing against then we can do that with the players we’ve got.”
The full squad list for next season can be seen below.
Retained:
Beth Cleveley
Beth Francis
Kim Winton
Nic Durnall
Penny Owen
Jess Williams
Charlotte Sewell
Tania Prior
Regional Talent Club:
Erin Taylor
Danni Garrett
Sasha Woodhouse
Chloe Howells
Other Signings:
Laura Parsons (RAF)
Holly Nicholson (TNS)
Nat Williams (TNS)
Jodie Carswell (TNS)
Charlotte Budd (TNS)
Millie Young (Wolves)
Louise Wilkes (Colchester)
Katie Doster (Shrewsbury Juniors)