Steve Cotterill: Shrewsbury Town must keep standards high
Steve Cotterill has challenged his ‘genuine’ and resurgent Shrewsbury Town players to maintain their recent performance levels.
The Montgomery Waters Meadow chief insists his team have already risen to the challenge that was ahead of them in securing a stunning hat-trick of away wins at League One promotion-challengers.
Town aim to make it a remarkable run of four wins on the spin – all away from home – at second-bottom Wigan Athletic today.
And Cotterill says, having ended their winless run of 10 league games in some style, the next task is to continue matching the standards that saw them take nine points from Hull, Lincoln and Doncaster.
“They’ve risen to the challenge already anyway so what they have to do is challenge themselves to maintain what they are doing,” said Cotterill, who is unbeaten in five league games in charge ahead of today’s clash.
“That is the challenge, not to just easy-easy along, we’ve got to bear in mind where we’ve been all season and we mustn’t forget that.
“When you’re down the bottom of the table and you’re not winning, you wouldn’t see too many arrogant people. And I don’t think I’ve seen any in the dressing room, they are all good, humble lads, honest and hard-working.
“The mistakes they make are genuine, I’m sure, because I’ve got to know them a little bit more now, I’ve probably lived with them over the last three or four weeks.”
Town have completed what appeared an unlikely task of climbing clear of the League One drop zone by Christmas despite a daunting run of games. Cotterill added: “I don’t know whether we’re ahead of schedule, we’re just trying to get results game-by-game to get ourselves away from an area of the table that is uncomfortable for people to enjoy themselves, supporters, managers, staff, players, it’s uncomfortable.”
