Town youngsters ready for St George's Park opener
Shrewsbury Town's youth team have the chance to play at England's new training ground when they kick off their pre-season programme tomorrow.
The Greenhous Meadow youngsters take on Burton Albion at St George's Park, the Football Association's recently opened £100 million national training centre.
It's the first of eight pre-season friendlies, two of which are on home soil with Town playing training ground clashes against Crewe Alexandra and Newport County.
Away games have also been arranged at Bolton Wanderers, Leeds United, Cardiff City, Hednesford Town and Morda United.
"Playing Burton at England's training ground, St George's Park, will be a good experience for all of us, coaches and players," said Wayne Evans, Shrewsbury Town's head of youth.
"We've got some game games arranged at Leeds and Bolton so they will be a good test for the lads. We've got some contacts at both clubs so it's great that we organised them towards the end of last season.
"This is a great opportunity for the lads to play, to get minutes under their belt and then they can go from there."
Wayne said the new crop of scholars had settled in well although the wet weather had thrown up problems in the youth team's training schedule.
He added: "We came back in on July 2. It's been good but the weather's been playing havoc.
"This week we've had to think on our feet in the morning where can we go and what can we do because of the downpours we've had.
"But it's going okay so far. It's a big change for the lads who have just joined us with training three times a day when they were only training twice a week and playing a game at the weekend.
"They're also away from their parents, away from the family and away from home.
"We're trying to keep an eye on them as much as possible and we're also asking our second years to make sure everything's fine as well.
"We've got 17 players so there's good competition."
Pre-season friendlies for Shrewsbury Town's youth team
Friday, July 13: Burton Albion (A)
Tuesday, July 17: Bolton Wanderers (A)
Saturday, July 21: Leeds United (A)
Saturday, July 28: Crewe Alexandra (H)
Saturday, August 4: Newport County (H)
Tuesday, August 7: Hednesford Town (A) 7pm
Saturday, August 11: Cardiff City (A)
Tuesday, August 14: Morda United (A)