Steve Cotterill's return has helped Shrewsbury evolve insists David Longwell

Cotterill tested positive for Covid-19 around the turn of 2021 and would spend more than two months in hospital, including intensive care, over two spells. He managed the club from afar and was out of the dugout for the remainder of the 21/22 campaign.

Assistant Aaron Wilbraham and first-team coach Longwell stepped up in his absence. Sunderland’s empty Stadium of Light, where Town visit in front of an expected 30,000-plus today, was the first league fixture Town faced without the boss by their side.

“It was a strange time, thinking back it’s quite surreal what happened on the time,” Longwell said.

“We were on a strong run after such a difficult period when the gaffer came in. To then not have him there was just very surreal and hard to manage from week to week and month to month.

“(It was hard) to get the manager’s thoughts across. You need the manager in any position.

“That’s why now we’re in a lot stronger position, how he’s worked with them and adapted them, you can see the way they are – they’ve been coached.

“Other clubs might go this and that and not that detail, we spend a lot of time on the detail, every game’s the same regards analysis and then what is presented about how we want to play and win.

“You see here the amount of work done, on being organised to give us the best chance. Even at Liverpool, the amount of tactical work done, the start of the game went well before that quality came.

“But we go to Sunderland with confidence. I feel we’re in a good position to go and get a result.”