ShrewsWeb took 5-minutes of Town MD Rob Bickerton's time to catch up on a few bits and pieces.

Last week saw the annual Football League Chairman's conference in Portugal. It is the time of the year when all the clubs get together to discuss different points of the league's make-up and ways to improve.

It is always a useful meeting and once again a number of important decisions were made: "The chairman's conference is something that I've been to several times now and it is two days of meetings and ideas.

"There were several initiatives launched as we move towards the new season and those are all about providing fans with a better experience in terms of the matchday quality but also value for money."

Saturday saw the end of the first 'early bird' discount for season tickets for the 2008/09 season and sales are up on last year. At present 2,540 tickets have been sold and this beats last season record sales: "The fans of this football club have been fantastic as season ticket sales have gone through the 2,500 barrier.

"I was on the phone everyday while I was in Portugal to monitor the sales and it's brilliant that we have now sold more than last year.

"I'd like to think that the challenge now is to go through the 3,000 barrier and would hope that fans who haven't renewed yet will still consider doing that."

Rob is working hard with Paul Simpson to land the players on the Town managers wanted list. There are discussions still ongoing and Rob hopes that if these come off there will be players to give the fans that wow factor: "We are working hard now to bring in players but there is nothing that we can announce yet as we need to be guarded as we don't want to alert other clubs to the players that we have been working on.

"I hope that we can repay the faith that the fans who have already bought tickets have shown in us and we can bring in some players who will make them go wow and excite them.

"We want to win games but we want to be exciting and I think the players we've brought in so far can help us achieve that. Steven Hindmarch is a novice but anyone who knows football can see we've gone for a quality player in Paul Murray."

With the Carling Cup draw and now the Coca Cola League 2 fixtures being released it means that the planning for next season can really start. Town start at home to Macclesfield and Rob is hoping to put one over on his old side: "Whilst I was away we had the draw for the Carling Cup and that was a great draw at home to Carlisle United. They did well in League 1 this year and that will be an early test for us but they are also Paul Simpson's home town side.

"The fixtures are out and we are home to Macclesfield for the first game and that is great as everyone wants to start the season at home if they can.

"We then travel to Exeter the week after and that will be a good test for us as they've just come out of the Conference and teams who get promoted tend to start the season well.

"I'm Shrewsbury through and through now and want to start the season with a win over Macclesfield because winning the first game can often set the tone for the season ahead.

"The manager now has the fixtures and we can now start to target our pre-season knowing the games we are going to play once the league begins.

"To end with I'd like that thank the fans for all their support buying the season tickets and hopefully we can enjoy the season ahead."