Walsall youngster making great impression
Walsall academy manager Rob Williams has revealed Dylan Thomas has spent the majority of this season training with the first team.
Thomas made his senior debut against Brighton under-21s, in the EFL Trophy aged 16, in August and was also handed cameos from the bench against Sheppey United and Shrewsbury Town respectively.
Williams hopes Thomas, who only turned 17 in December, will continue to make progress in his transition to senior football over the course of next season.
Micky Moore update
Director of football Micky Moore has penned an open letter to supporters to update them on all football-matters at Shrewsbury Town.
Everyone at Shrewsbury Town is committed to improving communication with our supporters.
And that’s why I think it’s important I write to you every 10 weeks or so to inform fans what we’re doing to improve all football-related matters at the club.
Our chief executive Liam Dooley is excellent at updating you on all our off-pitch activities and how we are working to make Shrewsbury Town financially sustainable.
But at the Supporters’ Parliament meeting back in January, it was suggested that both Liam and I regularly write open letters.
I thought at the time that was a good idea. And I’m now pleased to be writing my first update since that meeting at the turn of the year.
Things are always busy and hectic in football – but it is fair to say a lot has happened over the past few months.
Shortly after the Supporters’ Parliament, we had to make the tough decision to change our head coach.
And I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Matt Taylor and Marcus Bignot for all the hard work they put in during their time with the club.
It was a difficult decision to let them go – they are both really good people.
And they were unfortunate – we had a lot of injuries in the first half of the season.
Ultimately, though, we want to move forward as a football club, so we felt the right thing to do was make a change.
We brought Paul Hurst and Chris Doig back and it’s been great to see the welcome they have been given by supporters.
They know the club, they know the town and they know our fans, so it’s been easy for them to settle back in.
And they have started well with the return of 14 points from the 11 games they’ve managed so far.
I think, in that short space of time, it has been proven that we do have good players in the squad and now the aim is to finish the season on a high.
In terms of our January recruitment – following discussions with Paul – we decided to bring in a midfielder which led us to Jack Hinchy.
Then after the window closed, we strengthened again with the additions of Rayhaan Tulloch and Jack Price.
We were really happy to finally get Jack Price over the line. There was actually a deal put in place for him back in November. It’s been sitting there ready once he got back fit.
And I’d like to say a big thank you to Chris Skitt and the medical team for helping Jack get back on the grass and realise a childhood ambition of playing for Shrewsbury.
I have to say, Jack has done everything he can to return to full fitness following what was a nasty Achilles injury.
He was desperate to put on a Shrewsbury shirt and I’d also like to say thank you to the chairman for providing the funds to get Jack’s deal over the line.
While the contract he signed was short-term, we will now assess him over the coming weeks and during the close season to see how he feels having been out for the past 12 months.
