Shrewbury boss Steve Cotteril refutes defeat was down to formation
Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill refuted his side's defeat at Plymouth hinged on the formation.
As he has in recent fixtures, the Town boss switched his regular 3-5-2 shape to a 4-3-3 as the visitors went on search for an equaliser at Home Park on Saturday.
Cotterill insisted that the mix-up that led to Conor Grant's 62nd-minute winner, a rare sloppy goal conceded by Shrews, had nothing to do with Town's tactical set-up.
Low scorers Shrewsbury once more found it difficult to break through at the other end, with defender Matt Pennington the chief threat on Argyle's goal.
"It's a no-brainer to drop into that system, it was easy," manager Cotterill said of switching to 4-3-3 once forwards Tom Bloxham and Saikou Janneh were introduced.
"It isn't the system, the system makes no difference because you either defend that ball in a 3-5-2 or you defend it in a 4-3-3.
"The one thing that didn't change is the make-up in the midfield. We gave them a cheap goal and allowed them to win the game.
"It was a poor goal and those people involved know that, that's that really, what goes on in the dressing room always stays in the dressing room."
Cotterill suggested after the defeat that other players must step up to the goalscoring plate with goals in his leading marksmen having dried up of late.
But the boss would not acknowledge forward pair Daniel Udoh and Ryan Bowman – who have 20 goals between them this season – specifically. He said: "I didn't touch on whether their (goals) dry up, I just said certain goalscorers.
"Matthew Pennington scores from set-plays, somebody else can score from set-plays.
"It's not just about the two strikers at all, it's about the whole team. It's always about the whole team.
"To be fair whatever strikers we play, they always defend from the front – well, we can always attack from the back as well."
He added: "We've always done that (created chances) but it has been something for the time I've been here, we haven't always scored goals.
"We don't have that prolific goalscorer, if we had that prolific goalscorer, somebody who's going to get you 20 or 25 goals, we would be right up the league, and I mean right up the league.
"There was nothing between those two teams other than their strikers will have more goals than ours."
