Graham Turner urges Shrewsbury Town to kick on from Oldham victory

Goals from Jon Taylor and Aaron Wildig – the latter on his first start in more than a month because of a knee injury – earned Shrewsbury a first win in five matches to push them two points clear of the League One relegation zone.

It was their sixth win of an erratic campaign so far but Town have yet to record back-to-back wins and Turner hopes that this latest success will inspire a more consistent run of results.

He said: "It is a feeling of relief to have won.

"Sometimes you need something to kick-start the season, so obviously we hope this one will do that.

"We felt that might be the case after the Stevenage match a few weeks ago and the victory there which was very emphatic, but it didn't really kick-start it for us.

"But we are hoping this one will. We have lots of challenging games coming up, but we have got off to a good start in the new year. Let's hope we can keep it going."

The match was also the last of their respective loan spells with Shrewsbury for Bolton striker Tom Eaves, Middlesbrough midfielder Adam Reach and West Bromwich Albion defender Cameron Gayle.

But Turner – who also has Preston midfielder Nicky Wroe on loan until late January – has said he would like to keep some of those players for longer.

He said: "I have had a conversation with Tom Eaves and Adam Reach. I think it would be wrong to divulge what the outcome is right at the moment, but there's a few players in there that I'd would obviously like to keep."

But Reading striker Gozie Ugwu, whose loan also expires this week, is returning to his parent club.

Turner said: "We won't be renewing his loan. It didn't go right for him. He didn't get going in the home match against Tranmere. I think the crowd turned against him because of a perceived lack of effort – and I have got to say he could have worked a lot harder –and I think it affected him badly."