David Longwell: Norburn-Vela midfield partnership is best in League One

The duo have both been crucial to Town’s impressive form of late – and have recently been joined in midfield by Sean Goss.

Longwell, who is in charge of first-team affairs alongside Aaron Wilbraham while manager Steve Cotterill recovers from Covid-19, is full of praise for the pair.

When asked about Vela’s selfless work for the team, Longwell was quick to identify both him and Norburn as the ‘heart’ of the squad.

He said: “From the team point of view he (Vela) knows how valued he is.

“The players around him give him that respect and the staff do too. He has been excellent.

“Not to sound cliché and patronising but all the players have been excellent. They’ve worked so hard. There’s a good environment here. Something the manager was really strong about when he first came in was doing things correctly with high standards.

“That is only possible if players buy into it and Josh, with the rest of them, have done that.

“Josh has a lot of trust from us, he’s fully blooded.

“Alongside Ollie in the middle of the park, I don’t think there’s any two better than that in the league to be honest.

“The way that they dominate midfields, I genuinely think that. They’re the heart of our team and they run games for us.

“All the players play their part but those two win so many battles for us.”

Although Vela and Norburn have not played together professionally until joining forces at Shrewsbury, Vela has revealed the pair have known each for some time.

“We have a good relationship off the pitch and that comes onto the pitch as well,” Vela said.

“He’s a good player so it’s easy to play with him and I think we can compete with any of the midfielders in this league.

“We’re friends off the pitch and have known each other for a while.

“I knew him before I came him. It’s an easy transition when you’re playing with good players.”