Shrewsbury Town match paused as fans pay tribute to Nathan Fleetwood

The tribute was held to 21-year-old Nathan during the game against Doncaster Rovers, three days after his body was found in the River Severn in Shrewsbury.

The club held a minute's applause in the 21st minute of the League One game for the Shrews fan and keen footballer with fans in all four corners of the ground paying tribute to him and even the game stopping in tribute.

In an amazing coincidence, Shrewsbury took the lead in the 20th minute after a bright start which saw them on the attack.

Nathan went missing near Kingsland Bridge after a night out on March 27 and two public searches were held in the area, co-ordinated by close friend Toby Owen.

A social media campaign was set up in an effort to find him but specialist search teams recovered his body from the River Severn near Greyfriars Bridge on Friday afternoon, three weeks after he was last seen.

Toby said it was now about remembering Nathan and the minute's applause was a fitting way to do so for his friend, who loved football.

He said: "To see all the people standing up and applauding was really emotional, it has been a tough few days but if anything comes out of this it is that Nathan was well loved and respected, as seen by the amount of people who came out to look for him and want to pay their respects.

"The support has been amazing from all corners of the community and I would like to thank them for all their help in the search, their messages of support and sympathy and the way - as we have seen today - his passing has been marked.

Nathan's mother Carol, father Ges and sister Hannah were all expected to attend the game as well. He lived with them in the Castlefields area of Shrewsbury, worked as a trainer for McDonald's at Meole Brace and was a keen footballer playing as a winger for The Telegraph.

A spokesman for Shrewsbury Town said: "Nathan was a huge Shrewsbury fan who will be sorely missed by all at the club and we hope that could be seen by the way the minute's silence was observed and all the messages of sympathy we have had come into the club."

Further tributes are planned for later this week, with a florist having donated 260 sunflowers which will be added to the Greyfriars Bridge in tribute to Nathan.

In a video message, Toby spoke of the tributes attached to the bridge and explained plans for the flowers in Nathan's memory.

He said: "The bridge has been done and thank you to everyone who has done that. I am going to go down by the river and plant some sunflowers to resemble the happy and loving person he was."