Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill wants 'more belief' in set pieces

Leahy nodded home fellow wing-back Elliott Bennett’s corner to open the scoring in Tuesday’s 2-1 home defeat to Portsmouth.

Town place particular emphasis on set-pieces, with quality delivery from Bennett and Leahy and aerial prowess of Matthew Pennington, Ethan Ebanks-Landell and Ryan Bowman, among others.

Shrewsbury’s last victory, on January 2, came via a Pennington header against Sheffield Wednesday, but Cotterill wants to see even more threat from dead-balls as he looks to end a winless run of eight league games.

“He does have an influence on the game and he plays well for us,” said of Leahy’s impact after he returned from suspension.

“He’s come up with another goal again and that’s a bonus for him and a bonus to score from a set play, that’s the real bonus, for whoever got the goal.

“The bonus was scoring from a set play, hopefully that will give us the belief moving forward now that we can get a few more from it.”

Town head to 13th-placed Burton Albion today looking to rise clear of the drop zone after a winless run has seen sides below them close the gap.

Shrewsbury, meanwhile, have shuffled their non-playing staff with the arrival of new head of sports science Chris Whalley, who arrived from Blackpool.

Whalley has replaced fitness coach Andy Johnson, who left the club last week to pursue another challenge.

Johnson, who joined Town in summer 2019, left last week and Whalley’s first match in the role was against Portsmouth.

“Chris has come in from Blackpool, very highly-rated and has been excellent, really good,” Cotterill explained.

“He’s replaced AJ, who’s gone to pastures new and we wish him all the best. It was disappointing to see him leave, and the timing being in the season, I think AJ wanted this other job at Catapult for a little while.

“He did a good job and we were sad to see him go, but you have to move on quickly.

“We went through quite an intense interview process and Chris was really good, we’re delighted we’ve got him.”

Catapult uses sports science and analytics to help sportspeople unlock potential.