Steve Cotterill: Chey Dunkley getting better at Shrewsbury
Steve Cotterill believes Chey Dunkley has become a better player since his arrival at Shrewsbury Town.
The big defender got his sixth goal of the season to celebrate a successful week on a personal note which also saw him nominated for the League One player of the month award.
He put in another good performances at Montgomery Waters Meadow on Saturday as Salop got the better of Morecambe beating them 3-1.
And the Town boss, is delighted with the defenders progress, and he thinks he has made significant strides of improvement since moving to the Shropshire club in the summer.
“He is effective everywhere and has improved as a player I think in the time he’s been here,” Cotterill said about Dunkley. “I don’t want to discredit Chey or anything like that, but I think his feet have tidied up in the time he’s been with us.
“He had decent feet anyway, but I think some of his passing is much better than it was at the start of the season.
“And that’s because we do a fair few of those passing drills in training, we use quite a bit of it as a warm-up.
“It’s almost like Dave Longwell’s baby – and I like that – it gets them going, it gets them going and they enjoy it. And I just think all of those people, look at Matthew Pennington from when he came into where he is now.
“He looks as comfortable on the ball as anyone at the back there. That continual work is what Chey Dunkley has done.
“And I think he has tidied up and become a better footballer. We already knew what he was like as a competitor. And on top of it all he is just a great lad. A great lad. And when you have got a dressing room full of great lads, it’s easy to fit them in.”
Meanwhile, Cotterill said they do not know the extent of Christian Saydee’s hamstring injury yet.
The forward missed Saturday’s game after picking up the problem on Friday before the game.
“Christian pulled up at the end of training on Friday with a bit of a hamstring problem,” the experienced boss said about the injury. “I don’t know the extent of it, it is too early at the moment it has not even long enough.
“He had treatment after training on Friday, and again on Saturday morning. The game was far too early for him so we will just have to wait and see the extent of that.”
