PRE-SEASON punditry can be a minefield.

Supposed promotion certainties can disappear without trace; expected basement dwellers can turn the tables and embarrass the so-called experts.

And so it is with Shrewsbury this season whose remarkable run of form has ensured there are plentiful dollops of egg on the faces of all those predicting a season-long fight against the drop.

Everybody expected Blackburn and Wigan to be jostling for title honours with the players and budget at their disposal from their not-too-distant Premier League days.

But did anyone see Shrewsbury as their most meaningful challenger?

The forecasts before a ball was kicked were certainly way off the mark – as Shrews boss Paul Hurst reminds his squad on a daily basis.

Former City loan defender Luke Hendrie joined in January after his expected move to Valley Parade broke down.

But he quickly picked up on the ingredients behind their on-going push for automatic promotion. Top of that list is proving the pundits very wrong.

Hendrie said: “The manager has got things pinned up in the dressing room. There was a predicted table at the start of the season and Shrewsbury were second bottom.

“It’s on the wall and he uses that as motivation. A lot of the squad have got plenty to prove, whether they’ve been released from elsewhere or come up from non-league, and the manager is in to you every day to prove people wrong.

“It creates a real togetherness within the whole squad. Everyone is looking out for each other.

“Every day we train properly and really hard. There’s no easing off and that sets the tone throughout the week.

“We’ve got nothing to lose. Blackburn and Wigan are the big boys expected to go up and we just go out there every game and see where it takes us.

“Even now, at this stage of the season, that mentality hasn’t changed. Nobody is getting ahead of themselves and thinking about this or that and where we could end up.

“We just go out every game with the same attitude to work as hard as we can to get the result.”