Shrewsbury players receive emotional message from Steve Cotterill after stunning win
Shrewsbury Town players celebrated their impressive 2-0 home victory against Peterborough United with an emotional phone call from absent boss Steve Cotterill, who was watching on from hospital.
Cotterill has not previously been well enough to speak with his Town players as he recovers from Covid-19 but offered tactical advice over the phone at half-time before an emotive exchange at the end to rejoice a stunning success against one of League One's form sides.
Blackburn loanee Harry Chapman was the Town match-winning hero, with a brilliant second-half brace on his home debut in what was a much-deserved three points for Town, their first since returning from the enforced break.
Stand-in boss Aaron Wilbraham, Cotterill's assistant, revealed that the manager had passed on a message of congratulations at full-time alongside an emotional call to his troops.
Wilbraham said: "We've just had the gaffer on loudspeaker there at the end of the game in the changing room then.
"It was quality, the things he said, you could hear he was emotional in his voice, the boys really appreciate the things he said.
"It was like he was back in the building for a second. It was really good. He was really proud of everyone, it's been difficult times.
"It's been really difficult without the manager, he's obviously such a big influence on the team, as well as the 14-day break and long trips to Southampton and Sunderland.
"Me and Dave (Longwell) were never worried, there was no change in the lads' attitude in the two loses, the break killed us a little bit.
"And we knew after getting those games in our legs we'd see the performances come back before all this happened.
"I'm really pleased with the players' attitudes and the way they took on board things this week in training. I'm proud of every one of them."
Cotterill, who Wilbraham this week said had suffered a 'rough week' as he fights the virus, also offered his expertise at half-time after watching Town impress in a first-half display that ended goalless.
"We got him on at half-time as well, I had a couple of missed calls from him, he wanted to speak to the players," Wilbraham added.
"In the things he says, the gaffer, he doesn't miss a trick in every aspect of life.
"In everything he said, you can see the boys nodding their heads or answering individually when he spoke to them, it kept them going, it's really important because he's such a big miss around the place.
"He text me congratulations and is really proud of everyone, all the staff and the players."
Loan star Chapman lit up his home debut with a stunning double but was just one of a number of impressive performances as Town made it back-to-back home league wins to put five points between themselves and the drop zone.
Wilbraham said of his first victory in charge: "I really enjoyed it, the boys stuck to the game plan perfectly, what we'd worked on Thursday and Friday.
"From the first minute I could see everybody knew their jobs, it was a proper team performance."
And the Town No.2 added on the match-winner: "He's been doing it all week in training, Chappy. I said yesterday that I fancied him tomorrow because he's been banging them in all week in training.
"You could see how much work he did for the team, the gaffer mentioned to me to tell him he's got to work as No.8 without the ball and work as a No.10 with the ball.
"I thought he did that down to a tee and it was two great finishes, he deserved it for his work rate."
