Shrewsbury's Matt Pennington wants to get even better
Shrewsbury defender Matt Pennington has continued improvement in his sights amid a consistent first full season at the club.
Former Everton stopper Pennington, alongside wing-back Elliott Bennett, have been the two most familiar figures in Town's team this term, each starting 30 of the 31 fixtures – missing out once through suspension.
He has regularly won praise from manager Steve Cotterill for solid performances on the right of the defensive three, while the Salop boss has also noted the improvement in his game.
Pennington, who signed permanently last summer following a successful loan, was keen to play regular football after options at his boyhood club Everton were limited to a series of loan spells.
"To be honest I'm pleased to be in the team and playing at the moment, learning and growing, so I'm really pleased to be involved," said Pennington, 27.
"It's definitely what I wanted this season, to knuckle down and play games consistently, to stay injury free – touch wood – and enjoy my football, which is something I'm doing.
"I'm looking to keep improving and getting better and better."
Pennington, who signed a two-year deal last summer, is expected to keep his place for Town at Plymouth in League One today, while it remains to be seen if fellow defender and new recruit Tom Flanagan is well enough after illness to usurp Aaron Pierre for a place in the backline, following a well-earned midweek clean sheet at Wycombe.
Pennington said of his side's recent spate of draws, where goals have been tougher to come by: "We can all do more, whether it's a set-piece – we don't (just) have to score a header – but it's just not happening at the moment in terms of goals.
"But we're still working hard and hopefully it will come.
"The manager always says that if we can't win the game then don't get beat and we've done that recently.
"We've just not kind of turned that corner in the last few games to get the win, where we had that good spell over Christmas, we just need to try to recapture that and that would be great.
"We wanted to win the game. I wouldn't say the mood (after Wycombe) is great, we want to be better, to play better football.
"I think it was just a mood of 'we'll take the point, but we're not happy' and it is something we're looking to build on and improve on."
