Leader Luke Leahy has led by example at Shrewsbury says Steve Cotterill

Leahy has made 38 appearances for Shrewsbury this season, scoring eight goals after being made skipper before the opening day of the 2022-23 campaign. The former Bristol Rovers and Walsall defender has helped influence the younger members of the squad, despite being only 30 himself. Cotterill said: he was pleased with the way things had turned out for him.

He said: “I think he has been great but I knew that. I wasn’t going to give him the captaincy if I thought any different really so, I am delighted with how he has been and performed, how he is in and around the place, he has led by example.

“He has been so important, he is a great lad Luke and that is why at the beginning of the season, I made the decision to give him the job.”

Cotterill explained the unusual way of announcing the appointment which was done on Twitter.

He said “I know he was desperate to be captain. so that is why we announced it on social media, without me telling him. I just wanted him to enjoy it with his team-mates on the back of the bus. It was deliberately set out then so one of his team-mates saw it, and said ‘Have you seen this?’, and he hadn’t done.

“I wanted him to enjoy it with his team mates, rather than ‘Look how great I am, I’m giving you the captaincy; because it wasn’t about me, it was all about him. That’s why we did what we did,. A strange way, I’ve never done it before but it didn’t do any harm did it?”