Assistant boss Aaron Wilbraham urges Shrewsbury Town to be goal hungry
Assistant boss Aaron Wilbraham has called on Shrewsbury Town to replicate their ‘hunger’ to defend in a bid to find the net.
Town are back in action following Saturday’s Morecambe postponement as Portsmouth visit Montgomery Waters Meadow this evening.
Low-scoring Shrews eye a return to winning ways and Steve Cotterill’s deputy Wilbraham feels if Town can match their desire to defend in the other direction then the goals can flow.
“When I watch games I look at the way some teams recover to defend,” said ex-striker and No.2 Wilbraham. “Some teams just jog back in, it makes me think ‘our lads would never do that, when they recover they sprint back in’.
“But on the same token I see teams attack and I think maybe our lads could run that way a little bit quicker as well as they do when they defend.
“It’s getting that balance of having that hunger to score and not being afraid to miss to flood the box and put the pressure on, as well as being honest, resolute, hard to beat at the other end.”
Visitors Pompey sit 11th, 11 points off the play-offs but with three games in hand on some rivals. Town have found the net 28 times in 32 league games this term but boss Cotterill, who used to manage the Fratton Park outfit, has stated their ‘expected goals’ tally shows they warrant more.
Wilbraham added: “The way the manager has adapted training, we’re not just about not being beat, we want to win games, not draw games, we set out to win. Sometimes it’s a bit of direction for the lads and them having that hunger to score as much as they do to defend and not get beat.”
“I know I always enjoyed playing in teams who had that hunger to score. It’s changing that mentality from ‘we’re not just here to not get beat, we want to win games’.”
