Steve Cotterill: Still room to improve at Shrewsbury

On Christmas Day last season, Salop were 20th in League One – two points off the relegation zone.

But this year, rather than looking behind them, Town are looking up, sitting in 11th and trailing sixth-placed Derby County by just five points.

And Cotterill believes progress has been made throughout his time at the club and not just this season.

He said: “I think there was progress from the year before.

“But sometimes the league table doesn’t always show that progress.

“I think there is a fair bit of progress that’s gone on for the couple of years that I have been here.

“We have not got our head in the clouds, and we have to make sure we all understand at this football club how hard it has been.

“We are all pretty level-headed.

“We have got our feet on the ground and are honest and hard working.

“That is the way it has got to stay.”

Town have won their last three games in all competitions, all at Montgomery Waters Meadow, and they now have the challenge of maintaining that over the festive period.

Town are set to play three games over the next seven days.

Cotterill wants his side to maintain the things they have been doing well.

And he says despite his side’s impressive form he is yet to meet a footballer that cannot improve.

“I would like to see them do better everywhere,” the boss said when asked how they can kick on again.

“This means the stuff we are doing at the moment, can we get even better at it.

“I would like them to get better at what have been doing, and they will do that with more practice and more understanding.

“If there is anything I would like them to do I would like them to maintain what they have been doing.

“I don’t know a footballer that can’t get better, and it does not matter how old they are.

“So whatever it is, get even better at it.

“Muscles do not get better unless you work them, so the more we work the bigger and better we can get.”