"I wish you were dead!" Steve Cotterill abused after Shrewsbury draw
Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill was subjected to a torrent of vile abuse following his team’s 1-1 draw at Bristol Rovers.
The former Bristol City manager was heading to the touchline for his post-match interview when he was stopped in his tracks by home fans in the stands who targeted him with a string of four-letter words.
One fan also shouted ‘I wish you were dead’ at Cotterill, who had a brush with death during a long battle with Covid-19 just over a year ago.
The group of middle-aged men were then silenced by a fellow Rovers fan as children milled around the ground.
And speaking after the incident, Cotterill refused to let a few idiots tarnish the image of all Rovers fans.
“I came back here as a former Bristol City manager who has been successful and I’ve still got a home in the city,” said Cotterill, who won the League One title and EFL Trophy with Bristol City in 2015. “That abuse is not acceptable but I have lots of good friends who are ardent Rovers fans.
“It’s a few people who decide they wanted to have something to say, but I don’t know what you can do about it. You’ve got to take it.
“They are far enough away from you, but there’s a lot of people who are brave when they are 20 or 30 feet away.
“The stewarding was pretty good, and another guy told them to pipe down, but unfortunately this happens in football. Thankfully, it’s an isolated incident.”
Earlier, Ryan Bowman’s first goal of the season had done enough to earn Salop a draw at the Memorial Stadium. The forward bundled the ball home after a goal-mouth scramble from a set piece.
And this cancelled out Ryan Loft’s earlier strike which gave the home side the lead midway through the second half. The Town boss believes his side had the chances to win the game.
“They went ahead with their first effort on target,” the boss said when asked about the game. “It was disappointing because we thought we could have scored three or four in that second half. And we think we had a couple of good chances in the first half. The possession will be even, but our changes helped us and got us on the front foot a little bit more. They score the first goal and then you are hoping you are going to get back into it.
“But I think with the chances we had on goal today, 20-odd efforts.
“I remember us having four efforts in their box. I am not sure if we had not been chasing the game if they would have scored.
“It was a hard-earned away point but when you look at the chances it was a game we should have won.”
