Shrewsbury Town defender Joe Riley gives Paul Hurst boost for Bristol

Riley was limping towards the end of Saturday’s defeat to Bolton, but the full-back trained with the rest of the squad yesterday, giving Hurst a full complement to work with at Bristol Rovers this weekend.

Salop are teetering on the edge of safety and currently sit just one point above the League One drop zone although they have a game in hand on most of the teams around them.

But Hurst took some positives from the first-half performance against the high-flying Trotters and he wants his side to replicate that desire in the remaining seven games.

“A lot of it is your approach and attitude to the games,” he said. “There’s going to be nerves flying around for us and other teams in the relegation battle.

“It’s about holding your nerve and not getting too uptight in the situation. That’s where I need to come in.

“You’ve got to keep believing. It’s still very much in our hands so we can’t ask more than that.”

Although Monday’s training session was mainly focused on recovering from the weekend, Hurst was pleased with a few ‘decent bits of play’ he saw.

But the real work starts today, when the Salop manager wants to see his team roll their sleeves up in preparation for a testing trip to Bristol.

“Hard work, and belief,” he said. “Those are the two key things for me. If we don’t believe we won’t win games of football. If we don’t work hard we won’t win games.

“That’s what was pleasing for me in the first half (against Bolton), there was clear commitment from the players and a willingness to battle and scrap, which we need to do in these remaining games.”

Riley is enjoying a stand-out campaign at right-back, but he spent some time out last month with a hamstring injury and looked to have picked up another injury against Wanderers.

Fortunately for Hurst, he recovered in time for training and is due to be available this weekend.

“Joe was OK,” said Hurst. “It looked as though he picked up an injury towards the end of the game but he was fine.

“So we’ve got a full complement again which is pleasing from my point of view.”

“We don’t want anyone shying away from the situation that we’re in. We’ve certainly seen it before when players have done that.

“I want as many players available to me as possible for the run-in.”