Graham Turner wary of Shrewsbury Town promotion talk

Cautious manager Graham Turner today tempered the promotion fever sweeping through the Greenhous Meadow, declaring: "We've achieved nothing yet."

Last night's 1-0 victory over Port Vale kept alive the tantalising prospect of Town wrapping up automatic promotion as soon as this weekend.

Shrewsbury require six points to make mathematically certain of a top-three finish, but will be able to pop the champagne corks on Saturday evening should they win at Accrington and either Torquay or Crawley lose at AFC Wimbledon and Dagenham & Redbridge respectively.

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Town have now opened up a four-point advantage over their rivals for a top-three finish, but Turner is taking nothing for granted.

"I will get excited when we have finally done it," said the Shrewsbury chief, who is chasing the sixth promotion of his managerial career.

"I've seen many clubs come unstuck at the last hurdle and I'm very guarded against that. We need to keep the players steady with their feet on the floor.

"There is hard work to do at Accrington to get the three points. If it is achieved on Saturday and we get the win and other results go for us, that would be terrific. We might have to wait longer but the important thing is we are not there yet.

"We have to make sure we do it first and then we can celebrate."

A 55th-minute strike from Matt Richards sealed victory in last night's encounter as Town's fine end-of-season run, which has brought just one defeat in the last 12 games, continued.

"We have got three games to go starting with Accrington," added Turner.

"We seem nice and fresh. There doesn't seem to be any fatigue and we look full of energy."

While around 1,000 tickets had already been sold, last night's victory is now likely to spark a fresh surge in demand for the Accrington clash.

And Turner hailed the role of the fans who turned out in a season's best number of 7,678 for last night's derby clash.

"It's the best atmosphere I've experienced since I've been back here," he added.