Dave Edwards: Steve Cotterill will look at ways to boost Shrewsbury goal tally

An away following of almost 700 turned up, which is terrific support with little to play for. The manager would’ve been desperate to reward them with some points and goals.

It hasn’t quite happened. I don’t know if the team are starting to feel tiredness emotionally from a long season, with a small squad.

Moving into the next season what they’ve gone through this term could mentally toughen the players, learning about the manager’s methods too.

I know the manager was desperate to push to that mid-table to show progression and it’s not quite happened. You can see the frustration from Doncaster and Charlton.

It looked like it was going nowhere. The long pause for the incident with Marko Marosi probably didn’t help. No-one knows quite what was said but it’s a shame these things are still happening at matches. Hopefully the authorities will do the right thing once they get evidence.

Staff and players made a real effort to thank the fans afterwards for their excellent support.

Away results will be an area Steve will look at next year because form on the road hasn’t been good enough.

The way the manager sets up should work for away games, be tough to beat and play on the counter, but we haven’t scored enough goals. That is something he will look to address in the summer. We defend so well, is it almost with too many players at times so it’s hard to get numbers up?

I think we’re missing one creative player in that midfield who can really be the link to attack. At the moment maybe Dan Udoh and Ryan Bowman are trying to do things on their own.

Steve has always had them at other clubs. I think back to Luke Freeman at his Bristol City side, who was brilliant for him. That’s the type I think he’ll be after.

It’s somebody who will still work hard – you have to work hard in a Steve Cotterill team – but has that little bit of something extra. We have hard-working players who will never let the manager down for effort, determination and graft.

It’s hard to buy a player into Shrewsbury like that, because Shrewsbury Town might not be top of their list unless they are coming from the lower leagues. But that might be one where he has to take a loan market punt to get the right one from a Championship or Premier League club. They are difficult to find though! If they can find one gem in one position it’d be that for me. Scoring goals away from home – 17 in 23 games – is the fourth-worst in the league, but then 27 conceded is the seventh-best, so it’s obvious where the problem is.

We were in a better position than last season to finish as high up the table as we can but we haven’t had that strong finish to the season, which is a shame.

Even though the points don’t show a progression, I do feel the club is in a better place – or will be at the start of next season, compared to this season.

I look to the squad’s nucleus, the core been brought in. The players starting pre-season here are a lot stronger than what it was at the start of this season.

The club is in a good place, the infrastructure is good, because the fans were away for so long I think the home games have been quite special this season.

The atmosphere is probably as good as it has been barring that Paul Hurst season. The numbers are constantly good, over 6,000, that will keep improving, a lot of young boys and girls are coming to watch Shrewsbury, which is amazing.

The club is in a good place, it’s just that recruitment in the summer to improve a good nucleus, I know the manager likes a small squad but in an ideal world there won’t be as many young players who aren’t quite ready around the matchday squad.

You don’t want players coming through the season but I think he’d much prefer some stronger players signed on to hopefully change games.