Shrewsbury's Ryan Bowman 'cashing in credit' says team mate Elliott Bennett

Boss Steve Cotterill and experienced wing-back Bennett have praised hard-working Bowman for banking up ‘incredible’ credit among the Shrews ranks.

Bowman recently endured a lengthy barren run in front of goal and was left out of one starting line-up but has returned in style having netted in each of the last three games to take his tally for the season to 12 goals.

Bennett, who was also in the goals at Rotherham on Saturday with his first league strike for the club, opened up on why former Exeter frontman Bowman is so popular with his colleagues.

“Ryan works so, so hard for the team and doesn’t always get his rewards,” said the ex-Norwich and Blackburn man. “He works his tail off for the team every week. The gaffer played Blocko (Tom Bloxham, in the recent game against Portsmouth), Ryan got a rest and the gaffer talks about working in credit, you have to work hard for the team and you’ll get opportunities. He did that. He hadn’t scored for a couple of games but his work rate is unbelievable, but he gets his rewards, which is fantastic.

“The gaffer speaks about working in credit, the credit he’s got from the lads is incredible, the work him, Dan Udoh and Josh Vela (put in), it helps the lads at the back massively when you have that kind of intensity up the pitch. They earn their goals.” While Bowman made it a dozen goals for the season, strike partner and top scorer Daniel Udoh clocked up his 14th with the opener in the stunning 3-0 success at the Millers.

Former AFC Telford man Udoh lashed in a low left-footed strike across highly-rated goalkeeper Josh Vickers to pave the way for Cotterill’s men to run riot in South Yorkshire.

“Udoh scores the ones he has no right to do incredible well, like Saturday,” added Bennett. “His finishing, the power he has in both shots, you only have to look at his legs, he’s not built the same way as me I’ll tell you that. It was fantastic to see him get another goal, it was a great finish and everybody’s really happy for him.

“I wouldn’t want to be a keeper when Udoh hits the ball!”

Bennett, one of Town’s consistent and stand-out performers this season, made it two goals for the campaign with his maiden Shrews league goal. The wing-back turned home from close range into an empty net after Vickers had saved from Bowman as Salop delighted their travelling fans behind that goal.

He said: “I was in the right place at the right time, the lads were having a laugh and joke about how much I was concentrating on it but listen – I’ve seen lads miss from there! I didn’t want to be another one of those on the highlights saying ‘how has he missed from there?’”

Cotterill added: “We were talking about him having so much concentration to tap it in.

“It’s an awkward one – if you get that wrong that goes over the bar and everybody sinks.

“Most important we had people in the box, so if it did drop and it was parried, we had people on it rather than one of their lads clearing it.

“It was a good finish by Ryan Bowman, who 100 per cent deserved his goal with the way he’s playing at the moment.”