Steve Cotterill: No issue with Ryan Bowman as Shrewsbury's penalty man
Steve Cotterill is happy to shoulder the blame for Ryan Bowman’s poor penalty miss in Shrewsbury’s defeat at Bolton.
Striker Bowman spurned his side’s first spot-kick of the season in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat in Lancashire where, with Town 2-0 down after the interval, his tame effort was easily beaten away by Joel Dixon.
Cotterill revealed it was decided when summer recruit Bowman returned from an early-season hamstring injury that he would resume penalty duty from Luke Leahy – who scored five spot-kicks for Bristol Rovers last term.
Bowman converted a penalty in pre-season at AFC Telford United and Cotterill was content with his centre-forward being handed the ball by Leahy.
“I can easily take the blame for selecting him, if that’s what you want,” Cotterill said.
“When Ryan wasn’t in the team it would’ve been Luke Leahy, but Ryan had taken our first penalty in pre-season and he looked confident with it.
“He wanted to take them, so that was that decision made, quite a while ago, when he got back in the team.
“He practises them, I haven’t seen anything different in him that I thought I need to change that, really.
“We’re all disappointed, but nobody’s more disappointed that Ryan.”
Town, meanwhile, are back in action tonight but away from the pressures of League One. A youthful Cotterill side welcome Wolves Under-21s to Montgomery Waters Meadow in the EFL Trophy (7pm).
