Steve Cotterill praises Shrewsbury fans after 1k following at Hillsborough

Shrewsbury were well supported in Yorkshire, where 1,030 fans watch their side fall to a narrow 1-0 defeat to promotion hopefuls Sheffield Wednesday.

The boss and his players went over to clap the travelling fans at full-time after they watched their side go close to grabbing a late goal that would have earned a valuable point at the home of The Owls.

And Steve Cotterill hopes the ‘good rapport’ between the Shrewsbury fans and his staff and players continues in the coming weeks.

He said: “I think there’s a really good rapport between them (the fans) and the players and myself too.

“Hopefully, that will continue.

“We had really good support at the weekend, and that’s why I went over to them at the end.

“I think they were pleased with what they saw. “They gave loads of applause to the boys at the end.”

But on the pitch, the boss was left disappointed his side did not come away with something from the game.

They went behind in the 40th minute when Mark McGuiness headed home a near post corner on the stroke of half-time – a hammer blow for Shrews who had fought hard during the first half.

Going forward, Town were quiet in the opening 45 minutes, Wednesday had the majority of the ball, but Cotterill’s side stayed in the game, and as it wore on they created more opportunities to get one back.

“I thought, in the second half – and I keep saying this – we’ve created enough to get something from the game,” the boss said about the result.

“There won’t be many teams that come here and stick Sheffield Wednesday on the back foot like they were in the second half.”

“I’m pretty sure that if that collision on Luke Leahy was one of their players, that would’ve been a penalty.

“I don’t see us getting one there I’m afraid.

“But I still think we did enough, and I’ve been saying that a lot recently.”

The last few weeks have been tough for Cotterill’s men, they have played lots of sides who will expect to be pushing for promotion come the end of the season.

They have done so whilst being hit with injury problems – something the club has no control over.

But now the schedule calms down with Salop not having a three-game week until Christmas.

“We knew it was going to be difficult when we played it,” he said about the run of games they have had.

“You only have to look at the fixtures to know it was going to be tough at the weekend.

“But the bonus side of it (the six weeks) is that there hasn’t really been a game we’ve been out of.”