Steve Cotterill: Shrewsbury must make more of set-pieces
Steve Cotterill insists Shrewsbury are working to make more of their set-pieces after a first successful attempt the other night.
Defender Matt Pennington headed in an Elliott Bennett corner for a late consolation – Town's first goal directly from a dead ball this season – in the 2-1 home defeat to Wycombe on Tuesday.
Cotterill's men have been undone on several occasions with Burton, Gillingham, Sheffield Wednesday and Wycombe all profiting so far this season.
Salop almost snatched a point in midweek but fellow defender Aaron Pierre nodded a good chance wide at the back post. Cotterill feels, with the standard of his side's delivery, they should do more.
"He came off and said to me 'sorry Gaff' for the one at the end," the boss said of Pierre's late miss.
"But at the end of the day what we've got to do is start making better of our set-plays in terms of first contacts.
"We haven't had enough of those. There's been things we've looked at deeply this season, where our set-plays, for the all the work we do on them, haven't been too much of a benefit to us.
"An incredible amount of work goes into them for and against and we haven't quite had, I don't know whether it's the determination to get on the end of things. We need to have that.
"They have picked up since we raised that in the last two to three weeks, we have got better. That always has been a strength of us, when Charlie Daniels was here and Aaron was fit, it was a source of goals. We keep working on it.
"We've got two lads with fantastic technique in Elliott (Bennett) and Luke Leahy and we've got to keep working. We got a bit of joy from a set-play we worked on, and hopefully that gives us a bit more confidence."
Permanent summer recruit Pennington, who also netted twice in his loan spell in the second half of last season, also feels Town need to do more from the scenarios.
Centre-backs Pierre, Pennington and Ethan Ebanks-Landell are all threats, while Town's forward line boasts a physical presence and the likes of Leahy and Josh Vela are strong in the air.
Pennington said: "I think it's one of our first goals from a set-piece this season, we definitely need to all chip in. It's something we've been working on and need to improve on.
"We should score more, we've got big lads who wants to attack the ball. Hopefully that'll come."
