No time for getting carried away at Shrewsbury Town
Steve Cotterill admits Shrewsbury's current league position is a 'nice' place to be - but he insists his team must 'stay focused'.
Salop start the day sitting in eighth place in the League One table on 21 points, and by contrast to last season, they are 10 points better off than they were after 13 games.
But despite the impressive start to the campaign the Town boss is not getting carried away.
He is pleased by his team's start to the season and their league position, but it is where they finish in May that is important to him.
"It's nice, you can sit and look at it at the moment – it is pretty good," Cotterill said.
"But it’s about where you are in May, not where we are now.
"I can’t say to you when we were 18th last year, it’s about where you are come May, and then all of a sudden fall over myself and say how well we are doing because we’re eighth in the table.
"We are pretty much on an even keel. It’s about keeping on getting performances – that is what we need to do.
"I think it’s good for everybody at the football club when it comes up on Sky, that you see yourselves in the top half of the table rather than the bottom half.
"But other than that I wouldn’t get carried away – it's about the next game for me. It’s about staying focused.
"I know that this game is like, I’ve been in it a long time now, and it’s about staying focussed, you just have to make sure you keep training well, you keep preparing well and hopefully you get your rewards at the end of the season for it."
Town have won their last three games on the spin at the Meadow, and when they take on Charlton today, they will be looking at making it three league wins in succession.
And Cotterill said regardless of the statistics, his side must keep looking forward.
He said: "We have been pretty consistent so far this season. But we are just looking at the next game.
"It doesn’t matter whether it’s three games in a row – it's just the next game.
"The last two games that we have won – they are gone now. You don’t get any more points for them. They are gone.
"There may have been moments when I have had to challenge them.
"I think it is more about keeping it going.
"I say to our strikers it is easier to keep scoring goals than it is to stop and then try and score again.
"It is more about the next game that is where we are at."
