‘Fossil’ Mat Sadler proving Shrewsbury Town’s rock at the back

The club captain smirked as ‘experienced’ and ‘veteran’ were also used to describe him, but it is undeniable that the 32-year-old Town man is playing some of his best football in years.

Midfielder Bryn Morris came up with the tag and it has stuck at the Sundorne Castle training ground. Joker in the pack Louis Dodds isn’t letting Sadler live it down.

Amid all of the humour, there is an important point. Sadler, who will return to his former stomping ground of Walsall with Town tomorrow, is a vital cog in the Paul Hurst machine.

Unassuming as ever, he reinforced the fact that returning to the Banks’s Stadium. where he spent the 2011/2012 season, has no special bearing on him and that it is all about the team.

Sadler, reinvented as a centre-half by Hurst, was quickly installed as a crucial link between management staff and players at Montgomery Waters Meadow.

“Doigy and the gaffer are constantly pulling me and, if there’s anything that needs to be spoken about and nipped in the bud, it gets done,” Sadler said. “Coyney’s (goalkeeping coach Danny Coyne) always taking the mick because I’m always in that coaches room talking about one thing or another.

“I’ve naturally decided to be that link and have found it easy enough because the gaffer and Doigy have wanted me to be that.”

On the nickname, he smiled: “Now it’s ‘fossil’ all around the place. Doddsy keeps calling it me actually.

“He called it me on the pitch the other day against West Brom when we were playing against 16-year-olds, I did feel like a fossil then as I was twice their age.”

Sadler is naturally focused on earning Town a 10th win in 12 league games this season.

“I want to win the game,” he said. “I’ve no score to settle there at all, it’s the next game, the 12th of the season so far.

“I think I was popular there because my surname was similar to their nickname!

“I had a really enjoyable season there. I really enjoyed playing under the manager Dean Smith, he’s a great guy. A good football guy.

“I really like to see him do well as he has done at Brentford and did do at Walsall after I left.”

Town’s last win at Walsall was back in 1993. They are without a win at the Banks’s in 12 attempts since.

The defender admits Shrews put themselves up to be gunned at while sitting pretty at the top of the table.

Sadler added: “We haven’t won against them for a while so there’s a fair bit we want to put right.

“It’s a long old time since we’ve won there. Our run will come to an end whenever it does – if we’re sitting at the top then anyone is going to try and beat us.

“It’s an added bit of spice that we want to correct that 24 year run since we last won there, that’s a big thing for us.”

Ex-Birmingham, Walsall and Watford man Sadler backed Hurst’s call for Shrewsbury to raise their expectations and standards at the start of the season.

And he is enjoying the supporters’ optimism that has come with a flying start. “It’s great. For years we’ve been happy bouncing around the leagues. Hopefully, more fans can buy into it and more can come to the games.”