Tom Flanagan pushing to make a full Shrewsbury Town debut
Shrewsbury defender Tom Flanagan is pushing to make a full debut for the club in tomorrow’s home clash against Morecambe.
The new recruit from Sunderland, a full Northern Ireland international, made his Town bow as a second-half substitute during last Saturday’s defeat at Plymouth.
The 29-year-old impressed manager Steve Cotterill during the appearance and has ‘trained very well’ as he looks for a first start in Shrewsbury colours as 21st-placed Morecambe come to Shrewsbury, in 18th, in a six-pointer.
“He’s trained very well since he’s come in,” Cotterill said of Flanagan. “Tom’s just settling in, I think it’s very important you don’t chuck players in at the deep end if you don’t have to. It’s very important they understand what you do before they play. When we think Tom’s fit and ready we’ll have a look at him being in the team then.”
Flanagan would have made his debut two Tuesdays ago but illness struck him out of the trip to Wycombe, which earned Town a point from a goalless draw.
He recovered enough for a place on the bench in Devon last weekend and was introduced before the hour.
Cotterill and Town are boosted ahead of the Shrimps’ visit by the return to availability of key midfielder Luke Leahy.
Leahy served a two-match ban at Wycombe and Plymouth after collecting 10 yellow cards, a tally that frustrated his manager.
“Well we didn’t want to have him suspended in the first place but I think I made my feelings known about Luke’s suspension,” Cotterill added. “He knew about it long before that, there’d been a warning come before that, but it obviously happened. Now we can welcome him back into the group, we’re obviously pleased to have him back and hopefully he doesn’t get done and has learned his lesson from a couple of bookings that he shouldn’t have got this season.
“Because we could’ve done with Luke in the last two games.”
Cotterill, meanwhile, revealed he brought forward some of Town’s preparation planning due to concerns Storm Eunice is set to wreak havoc in the county today.
He said: “We did a massive chunk of our prep yesterday, more than I would normally do on a Thursday.
“We were out there yesterday another 30 minutes longer than I would’ve wanted, but with this storm coming, I’m really not sure what it’ll be like out there tomorrow, it could be like a swimming pool and I know the wind is coming, which is always a delight to play football in.”
