'Incredible' Shrewsbury have got to keep going says Steve Cotterill
Steve Cotterill says Shrewsbury’s players and staff have ‘given ‘everything’ this season – and he is desperate for them not to tail off in the final eight games.
It has been a campaign of progression at Montgomery Waters Meadow, with Salop 10th in League One with a small proportion of the season remaining.
Shrews’ squad is threadbare though, they are ravaged by injuries, but Cotterill has praised the ‘incredible job’ they have done to be where they are now.
He said: “I just think they have done an incredible job this year for us to be in 10th with eight games to go with five of those being at home.
“I have mentioned in my programme notes this week, I think my staff and the players have given everything this year – for such a small group.
“My staff are included in that – for what we have and the size of the squad we have and the number of games they have played.
“We can talk all day long about the players we haven’t got. But those players we have got have kept going, kept going and kept going.
“And the staff have done exactly the same. They have given everything.”
Shrews welcome Peterborough United to Montgomery Waters Meadow today, before making the trip to Oakwell on Monday to take on Barnsley in Yorkshire.
The Shrewsbury boss is keen his side maintain the performance levels and results they have hit week and week out and said it has been an ‘uncomfortable’ week for his players after the disappointing result at Charlton.
He said: “It has been an uncomfortable week, not just for the players but uncomfortable for me, too.
“As there have been a few choice words, about what happened last week, and how it happened and why it happened, but you have to go into that, you cannot just sit here and get the skipping rope out and have a laugh and a dance each day.
“You cannot do that, so there has been a few things that have needed to have been nailed down this week.
“I wouldn’t say it has been a comfortable week, maybe it will be a good one, but what happens is we are dictated to by what happens for 90 minutes on a Saturday. Last week I told you how good a week we had, and look where that got me? You would never have seen that coming.”
