The team spirit in the current Wanderers’ squad is the best Sam Wood has ever experienced – better even than when he helped Brentford win the League Two title in 2009.

Wood’s fifth goal of the season took just 40 seconds to arrive in the Chairboys’ latest triumph as they stole a march on Shrewsbury in the race for automatic promotion.

An accomplished first half display meant there was only one side in the game at the break, before the hosts’ battling qualities came to the fore as they held on to their slender advantage in the second 45 and secured a victory that takes them to second in the table.

Wood said: “We’ve got a few boys in the changing room who’ve had promotions as well so it’s not just me. The one I had with Brentford – I think the team morale is probably better here if I’m honest.

“We’re together, we’re not individuals, there are no big timers, we’re all level headed. Hayesy, the captain, is with all the young boys and even with me he’s like ‘come on, Woody, keep going’.

“We’re backing each other up all the time. With me and Hayesy, he’s obviously older but he likes me talking to him. We’re all on it and we’re all sticking together. It keeps us on level par.

“If you make a mistake we don’t argue about it and we go ‘come on, next time’. That’s what you need. There are no arguments. We’re all on the same road and we keep bobbing along.”

Wood rose to meet Nico Yennaris’ cross in the first minute of the match and sent a header flying past Jason Leutwiler in the Shrewsbury goal.

The late withdrawal of Hogan Ephraim meant the 28-year-old moved into a more advanced role, and his endless running and constant harassing of the opposition was a standout feature as Blues ran all over the visitors in the first half – a tactic which worked perfectly.

“We’re a high, pressing team – everyone knows that and we knew that we had to get into these today, which was what we did,” he said.

“There was a late drop-out with Hogan being ill. Saunders has come in, we’ve changed the formation and obviously adapted well. It seemed to pay off.

“These things test us with the change of players last minute and it shows what a good group we are that we can adapt to things like that and we got the three points.”

A gutsy second half effort saw Blues dig in and do the ugly side of the game equally as well as they performed the prettier facets of the game in the first 45 minutes.

Wood was happy to provide the game’s defining moment, but was quick to praise the team effort that had kept Shrewsbury out.

He said: “I don’t score many and normally they’re from 30 or 40 yards. It was great to get a goal and it was a great start for us. It was just what we wanted and we managed to hold out and get the three points.

“It was massive. I was speaking about it with the boys and we said it was going to be a massive game – it was going to be a tough game.

“We had a plan, we got the goal early and we hung on and got the three points. It’s put us in a good position in the league now.”