Dave Edwards: Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill deserves a lot of credit for Wycombe win
Steve Cotterill’s tactical nous, in-game formation changes and substitutions deserve a lot of credit for Saturday’s massive win at Wycombe.
The changes midway through that second half, to a four at the back, is ultimately, what got Shrewsbury back in the game, so he must take credit for that.
It was a huge win and off the back of beating Carlisle. They are two big results for the team and the manager to start building confidence.
They will have been disappointed with the results at the start of the season in the two games, against teams they are expecting to finish above.
When you don’t pick up those early results, all of a sudden these upcoming games look very daunting.
So the manager and the players deserve a lot of credit.
As we know it is such a tough place to go and get a result.
It really settles the nerves before two big home games coming up this week.
Town look such a threat from set-pieces.
Chey Dunkley has great ability in both boxes, I have played against him quite a few times, and he is a hard person to mark as an opposition player.
Pennington is exactly the same, and Flanagan will win his fair share of headers as well.
It is a huge avenue for goals for Steve Cotterill and his team. I know they work on it religiously the day before a game, and lots of preparation goes into it.
Also, there is the George Nurse long throw.
They have to use it with the assets they have in Pennington and Dunkley.
It will win them games like it did on Saturday. Another thing is their fitness. Town look strong going into the back end of these games.
They haven’t got the resources of the 14, 15 other clubs above them in the league. They have to rely on the things they can control, and Steve Cotterill has made it obvious that one thing he can control is how fit his players are.
I was part of the group that was nowhere near fit enough when he came in. But they have worked extremely hard on getting that right since and they are reaping their rewards now with lads going into that last 20 minutes.
They still look strong and powerful, and they keep venturing forward covering distance.
The news about Aiden O’Brien is a huge blow.
He will be one of Town’s best players when he is ready to play.
A fit and firing Aiden O’Brien at his best is one of Shrewsbury’s best players so he is a big miss.
They need to make sure they get him 100 per cent fit because he can be a game-changer.
For a club like us to get him initially I thought was a great coup to get him initially was great by the manager and the recruitment guys.
When it gets to that point when you have a niggle and you keep trying to come back it is almost a relief when someone tells you that you need surgery to get it right.
So that’s where his head will be, and because it’s minor surgery hopefully he will not be out for very long.
There are two huge matches this week and the atmosphere in both games will be really good. I have a feeling on the back of Saturday’s result they can get a positive result against Derby. But it might be tough against Ipswich.
