Steve Cotterill challenges Shrewsbury Town back up boys to break into line-up
Steve Cotterill has challenged his back-up players to break into his consistent first XI – as the Shrewsbury boss stressed the importance of consistency.
There has been a familiar look to Cotterill's line-up of late with the Town chief having opted to name the same starters for seven games in a row in all competitions, including lately in Tuesday's goalless draw at strugglers Gillingham.
Cotterill stressed how refreshing it is to have a consistent and familiar side and insisted the 11 players who helped turn his side's form around over the Christmas period deserve to have the shirts.
"I might even do it on Saturday and then you can all report I've done it for an eighth time, that'll be good won't it?" Cotterill said, ahead of a trip to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday where 20th welcome 17th in League One.
"Isn't it good to have a settled team though? Rather than chopping and changing, chopping and changing every week, that's all we had to do, chop this, chop that.
"The reason those boys are there is they've done it, they've earned it, that's what will happen.
"It's about the other boys trying to break back into that team, that's what they've got to do, when they break back into it they've got to keep their shirt."
Salop were unable to respond from Saturday's late defeat against Bolton with a win at Gillingham on Tuesday as the sides instead shared the spoils on a forgettable evenings.
But Cotterill was satisfied with another clean sheet as his side cleared their lines well against a physical Gills approach.
"We deserved one on Saturday as well," he said of the latest shutout. "What's that now? Five out of six? It really could be six out of six and probably should be.
"But there's nothing we can do about that. When you come to Gillingham you've got to make sure you not only head every ball out of your box, you've got to get on to every second ball so they don't fire from the edge of the box.
"They had a 3-2 defeat at Wigan away and could've easily come out of it winning, especially in the second half, from a bit of direct play, straight up, big striker holds it, they scored a couple of great goals at the weekend.
"We didn't give them those looks at our goal and those opportunities they got against Wigan.
"We want a clean sheet every week, we want a clean sheet and a 2-0 win with strikers scoring a goal each, but that hasn't happened, they are not always going to score."
