Bernard McNally: This week can show Shrewsbury Town are on the up

And I believe Shrewsbury could be on the verge of one of those over the next seven to 10 days with these three games on the horizon.

To get a positive result in Lincoln tomorrow night can really help build some momentum ahead of the home games.

It could be a really positive week. If you can pick up a few results quickly it can really give you a boost up the table.

I’m sure the lads will have gained confidence from the result at Tranmere a couple of Saturdays ago and we can take that to Lincolnshire and bring the points home.

I’m looking forward to an exciting 10 days ahead.

It’s a big week for us with an eye on the two exciting home games against Gillingham and Sunderland next week.

Lincoln have been riding a wave for a few years now. But losing their management team will have been difficult.

I think that means we can go there to a tough place and be confident, especially having won in the league at Prenton Park last time out.

The international break has also meant we’ve had a couple of weeks to train and bond more, hopefully this is an opportunity to go to Sincil Bank and get a tremendous result.

Sadly there has been some terrible football headlines this week.

Racism was rife back in my day, playing from the 1980s until 1995 and it wasn’t acceptable then.

If you’re a white player with abused black players in your side it’s embarrassing for you that your team-mate has to go through that.

We used to say ‘turn the other cheek’, ‘ignore it’ or ‘let your feet do the talking’ and that’s really admirable, but it’s a different era now. It’s a multicultural 21st Century.

I’m right behind the black community with this. This should not be happening. Images of the Nazi salutes from Bulgaria were unacceptable and ludicrous.

It’s so sad it has crept back into football. These people aren’t fans or interested in football.

As retired players from a bygone era we are still brothers, it doesn’t matter if you’re black, white or whatever. It’s vital that the FA, UEFA and FIFA put an assault on this and stop it.

I played alongside a young Mickey Brown for Town. He was a lovely lad, a very good footballer.

We had the eccentric Victor Kasule. These guys are your team-mates. You’re always behind them and want to stick up for your mates. There were times that abuse was hurled at them. It wasn’t nice. We’d say ‘ignore those morons’.

I spoke with the late Cyrille Regis about it and how he had to change his mindset. It’s just shocking I’m even writing about it in 2019 having played 30 years ago.

If anybody is caught and proof is on video then surely they have to be banned for life.