Sean Goss delighted after 'surprising' Shrewsbury Town U-turn

Goss is enjoying a U-turn on his Montgomery Waters Meadow career having been frozen out by former manager Sam Ricketts, where the midfielder was not registered in the squad for League One action.

But Cotterill quickly moved to register the former Manchester United youngster in one of two available spaces – much to the midfielder's surprise – meaning he was able to taste his first league involvement of the season.

Goss, 25, revealed his frustration having been told he was not part of the plans under Ricketts, where he was training with the youth team under academy boss David Longwell. Now, back in the first-team reckoning, Goss shone in helping Cotterill to a first league win in charge of Town at leaders Hull City.

"Obviously it was tough. I didn't know I could (be registered to) play league games. It was a really tough period," said Goss, who impressed in an unfamiliar attacking midfield role in the 1-0 win at the KCOM Stadium.

"Dave helped me out a lot, I was training with them, he kept me on it every day and I'm just really grateful for the opportunity from the new manager. He's given me a chance and I just want to do everything I can to pay that back.

"I'm really enjoying playing under him and hopefully we can keep building on the performances.

"It was a strange situation but for me it's a fresh start with a new manager coming in, I wanted to show what I could do.

"I was just grateful to be back in and around the squad, to be playing is a bonus and I'm loving it to be fair."

Goss admitted he thought his chance of league football would not come until January at the earliest but has found himself central to Cotterill's plans.

"The manager comes in and takes training. We had the cup game, I thought it was a chance to show what I could do to try to get back in the squad in January," he said.

"I was quite surprised, just as surprised as everyone else, when I was playing on the Wednesday (against Accrington Stanley)  in the league.

"But I was grateful and just want to kick on."

Goss was signed by Ricketts in the summer of 2019 and was a first-team regular last season but fell out of favour alongside fellow former Old Trafford youngster Donald Love.

The left-footed midfielder kept his head down and worked hard with minimal fuss but revealed it was difficult not knowing when his next game would be.

But Goss, who admitted it could take a few weeks to reach 100 per cent match sharpness, caught the eye as a reinvigorated Town impressed in a 1-0 victory at leaders Hull thanks to Charlie Daniels' goal, which gave their bid to escape the bottom four a shot in the arm.

Goss added: "You never know when you're going to get a chance so I was keeping my head down working hard behind the scenes.

"It was really tough, not knowing when your next game of football is going to be, training all week, not having anything to look forward to at the weekend.

"It was definitely one of the toughest parts of my career for sure.

"I did pre-season as normal, I had a rib injury that I was playing and training through but there were a few incidents where I was in that much pain I couldn't train to a maximum.

"It was a weird injury, I didn't know how long it'd take to settle down and I only found out in the last week of the window that I wouldn't be put into the matchday squad, which was frustrating. I just had to take it on the chin."