Shrewsbury's Matthew Pennington earns a salute from manager ahead of 100th appearance
Steve Cotterill has lauded Shrewsbury Town's Matthew Pennington as the defender is set to make his 100th appearance for the club against Burton Albion this afternoon.
The defender arrived at the club in January 2020, on an initial six-month loan deal from Everton before making the switch to Montgomery Waters Meadow permanently the following summer.
He has netted five goals this campaign being a threat in the opponents box, as well as being impressive from a defensive perspective on the right side of Shrewsbury's back three.
And the Town boss is delighted for the defender to reach 100 appearances for the club.
Cotterill said: "He's been great for us. He's a great lad and he's been here since the early days.
"He's seen the dressing room evolve and the club evolve and he's just a great boy.
"The biggest compliment you could pay Matthew Pennington is if he walked through the door with one of your daughters, you'd be delighted. He's a really great kid.
"He's loved in the dressing room and it's great because he's got a good bit of dry banter and he's a very clever boy is Matt Pennington so he's very popular in the dressing room."
Before arriving at Town, Pennington was loaned out by Everton quite frequently to gain experience, he spent time at Leeds United, Hull City and Walsall.
But since moving to Shropshire, he has really found his feet and the Town boss thinks he is one of the players that has continued to develop during his time at Shrewsbury.
Cotterill continued: "He's already made an impact on the club. He was a bit here there and everywhere before with his loans and going back but I think before he came here he spoke to Luke Ayling about what it was going to be like working with me and what we would do for him.
"I think Matthew Pennington has improved massively since he's been here but I think that goes for all of them with lots of things we work on in training.
"Chey Dunkley is a better player now than he was when he came to us, but as I always say you can never make anybody better without their consent.
"They give their consent to be constructively criticised but then go out on the training pitch and work at it."
