Shrewsbury strikers Ryan Bowman and Daniel Udoh praised for hard work

The duo lead the way in Town’s scoring charts with eight goals each this term and have spearheaded a recent upturn in home form.

Udoh, 25, is enjoying the best form of his Shrewsbury career in his third season at the club and will look to add to his top scorer tally with a Christmas bonus in Sunday’s Boxing Day clash at Fleetwood Town.

Bowman, 30, meanwhile, is enjoying a first full season in League One of his senior career after being offered the challenge to step up to the third tier by boss Steve Cotterill, who brought him in from Exeter in the summer.

Assistant boss Aaron Wilbraham, himself a scorer of almost 150 goals over a 23-year professional career, could not speak highly enough for the duo. He said: “They have worked really hard since pre-season, the pair of them.

“They are always eager to get better. Tom Bloxham as well, all the strikers.

“Everyone has worked really hard. So to see them scoring and getting the rewards, that’s what the gaffer loves, when the strikers get the rewards and the team is playing well.

“We need to keep those two in good form.”

Udoh added his seventh and eighth goals of the season, equalling partner Bowman in the charts, with a well-taken double against Cheltenham last weekend.

It came in a fixture where Udoh’s all-round game was typically excellent. His bullish hold-up play and driving runs have been singled out by Cotterill.

“Defenders are starting to fear him,” Wilbraham said. “He’s learning about how to effect games more maybe than last season.

“He’s always willing to learn, Dan, he’s always eager to learn more and stay to do more extras. We have to drag him off the training field a lot of the time because he wants to do extras, we’re saying ‘no, save your legs’.

“When you have someone who wants to get better and better like that, they’re easy to coach because they’re so willing to learn.”

Bowman himself is closing in 150 career goals and is just 13 shy of the milestone he will hope to hit with Town.

“He (Bowman) has got that knack of being in the right place which Dan probably hasn’t yet,” Wilbraham explained. “Dan probably has to graft for all of his goals, but he’ll give you 100 per cent work rate to get those goals.

“Whereas Ryan is craftier, finding himself in good goalscoring positions.

“But Ryan’s a great lad around the place, he wants to step up to the level and was set the challenge by the manager, he’s proving he can do it.

“It’s great when you’ve got two strikes in a rich vein of form.”