Forgot about Ben?

Last updated : 03 March 2005 By Matthew Gamble
Smith has been out since the end of September, after he was stretchered off with a dislocated shoulder after just 12 minutes of Town's victory over Bournemouth in the LDV Vans Trophy.

It was feared that Smith would miss the whole season, but his speedy recovery means he has a chance of featuring this term.

Smith had started all of Town's games up until his injury, he impressed, scoring three goals and assisting on others. The former Hereford man has yet to feature under Gary Peters since joining from the Bulls on a free in the summer.

Smith told ShrewsWeb: "This is a little bit ahead of schedule and maybe gives me a chance to feature around the first team squad before the end of the season."

Smith added that although he had been maintaining his fitness, he was far from match-fit: "To get your match fitness is totally different and it will take me a while to get that.

"If you were to say to me now 'go out and run for half an hour,' I could do it, but if you asked me to go and play a game for an hour I couldn't. It's a totally different type of fitness.

"A couple of weeks ago I did 20 minutes with the lads in a little game situation and my throat was burning," he added.