Shrewsbury Town: EFL Trophy finalists announce £409,000 profit for 2016-17 season

Shrewsbury boss Paul Hurst has already won twice at Wembley, as a player with Rotherham and as manager with Grimsby

Wembley finalists Shrewsbury Town have added to the feeling of good times in Shropshire by announcing a £409,000 profit for the 2016-17 season.

The promotion-chasing League One club's financial results for last season came in the same week that they reached this season's EFL Trophy final at Wembley.

With Town second in the table and average gates up by 15%, there looks to be even healthier news ahead.

"History's waiting to be made," Town boss Paul Hurst told BBC Shropshire.

"This club's been to Wembley three times and never won. We want to change that."

Hurst was at the old Wembley when Shrewsbury first visited the famous stadium for the 1996 Football League Trophy final, playing at left-back for the Rotherham United side that condemned Fred Davies's Town side to a 2-1 defeat.

And Hurst says he has nursed a season-long ambition to atone, which he hopes will the case against League Two side Lincoln City on 8 April.

"I said at the start of the competition that I wanted to take Shrewsbury to Wembley," he said. "Well, you don't want to go to Wembley and not win."

Shrewsbury will head to Wembley 10 days after the club makes its annual report to shareholders at their AGM on 29 March.

While the club will again report a profit, it will be substantially less than the one they enjoyed in 2015-16, largely because of the purchase and initial renovation of their training ground, and compensation costs to Grimsby for bringing Hurst to the club.

With average league attendances up this season from 5,507 to 6,231, bigger gate receipts, television and prize money are set to add up to an expected increase in profit for the 2017-18 campaign.

Meanwhile, Shrewsbury have signed a new agreement with BBC Radio Shropshire to guarantee full-match commentary of all of the club's games, home and away, for at least the next three seasons.