Bernard McNally column: Draws show signs of promise for Shrewsbury

They may not have won in League One yet but they have picked up back-to-back draws and successive clean sheets.

Salop had the chances to come away from the games against Blackpool and Doncaster with six points and, while they haven’t got those wins, John Askey will be feeling a lot happier.

Yes, he will be desperate for his side to brush up on their finishing, but there have been some positive signs – they are coming together as a team.

They should have had a penalty at Doncaster but there’s nothing John can do about that at all. It was just an obvious error from the referee.

Once they get their shooting boots on, they’ll start to climb this league. There is no need to panic.

You have to remember how many players, and how many key players, left over the summer.

John has been dealt a tough hand and these last couple of showings have been better.

They’ve been pretty solid at the back. Mat Sadler has been brought back into the fold and Town have not conceded.

I think John realises now that it was the wrong call to drop Sadler.

Sometimes as a manager, especially when you’re coming into a new club, it is OK to listen to what people on the outside are saying.

A lot of people were surprised to see Sadler dropped as he was one of the best players last season and John showed a lot of humility in bringing him back into the team. The one thing that John will be hoping for now is someone can step up and take on the goalscoring mantle.

They have only scored once in four league games, Lenell John-Lewis netting in the loss at Charlton.

He might have to rejig things going forward and allow the wingers to have more of a free role, perhaps allow Alex Gilliead or Shaun Whalley to get in those scoring positions a bit more.

At the moment they’re playing with a classic No.9, with those two either side, but it hasn’t quite clicked.

There’s the new signing Lee Angol and Fejiri Okenabirhie who also came in over the summer who haven’t had many minutes so far but could perhaps provide the solution.

John will be going over various different things, who or what he can introduce in order to find that ruthlessness in front of goal.

They’re going to Luton on Saturday and if they can get three points there, that would be fantastic.

It’d be good to go there, get right in Luton’s faces from the very first whistle, and grab the three points.

Then they can go into the game at the Meadow a week on Saturday against Bristol Rovers, who have Alex Rodman and Stefan Payne now of course, in high spirits.