Shrewsbury Town youngsters will get chance to impress in pre-season
Shrewsbury Town's youngsters are set to get good opportunities to impress in pre-season – according to boss Matt Taylor.
Salop have their first game of pre-season on Saturday when they make the short trip to West Brom to take on the Baggies at their Walsall training base.
New director of football Micky Moore and new head coach Matt Taylor are still building their squad ahead of the new season and despite a few promising additions there is still plenty of work to be done.
And this means youngsters such as Declan Hutchings, Josh Bailey, Nana Owusu and Michael Parker will get the chance to impress Taylor.
He said: "They will have to because that is where we are at the moment. The reason I say they will have to is that what we cannot do is go from zero to a hundred in two weeks. There is a process that we have to follow.
"We want to make sure the players are fit and ready for the Cheltenham game, and while pre-season friendlies are very important for the seniors they are also massive for the younger players.
"It will be the first time that I have had eyes on many of them, it will be the first time that Marcus (Bignot) has and we are very fortunate that David (Longwell) knows them very well.
"We have had huge conversations on the training ground about the younger players, they have trained with us since day one and there has been some impressive performances."
Bailey made his League One debut last season – but the other three are yet to taste senior league action for Shrews and the Town boss understands young players can be a little inconsistent.
He said: "With younger players, you have to understand and accept that there will be volatility in their performance. Some days will be good and other days will not be so good.
"Now what we have to got to try and do is make sure they are more consistent like the senior players – what we have to do is create a clear pathway for our academy players to come through into the first team.
"How that looks at the moment is a conversation we are having internally with the coaches but it is most definitely seeing the young up here training with the first team."
