Steve Cotterill: Shrewsbury play ‘close to line’
Steve Cotterill wants his Shrewsbury Town players to be ‘committed’ and play ‘to the line’ despite more suspension issues.
Midfielder Josh Vela was shown a straight red card during Tuesday night’s home defeat to Portsmouth. In doing so he received Town’s fifth red card in League One this season – with six in all competitions.
He will miss key upcoming games against Burton, Rotherham and Cambridge as Cotterill’s side look to end a winless run.
The manager recently revealed his disappointment at losing key regular Luke Leahy to a two-match ban for 10 cautions in the wake of some ‘silly’ yellow cards.
“There’s nothing you can do about it, you just want to get on with it,” Cotterill said. “I never harp on about players we’ve had missing because all it does is undermine those that are going to play instead of those that are not out on the pitch.
“There’s players that want to play anyway, so there’s nothing I can do about that.”
Vela joins Elliott Bennett, Harry Burgoyne and David Davis – twice – to have been shown their marching orders in league action this term. Matthew Pennington was sent off in the EFL Cup.
Only Gillingham have as many red cards as Town in the third tier this term.
The manager added: “We still want our players to play committed. We want them to play up to the line. We want them to go the hard yards to try to get wins.
“Teams don’t play against us and get an easy game. We’re not an easy touch, the lads have to go all the way to the line with that.
“It’s what you have to do. The players coming into your club have to be committed and that’s where we are.
“Sometimes you’ll end up crossing the line and we have to suffer that, we will suffer that as a team and dressing room.”
Town have also been hit with three FA sanctions for failing to act in an orderly manner this term, against Gillingham, Accrington Stanley and Wycombe.
New defender Tom Flanagan, who made his full debut on Tuesday, picked up nine league bookings at former club Sunderland, meaning he is one caution from a suspension.
Vela has nine yellow cards in all competitions – eight in League One – meaning he is close to the ban threshold. The cut-off point for a two-match ban for 10 cautions is 37 matches. Town have played 33.
