Chey Dunkley issues rallying call as he eyes a happy Shrewsbury ending
Shrewsbury Town defender Chey Dunkley has urged his team-mates to stay physically and mentally strong for the remaining six games of the campaign.
Shrewsbury have had a good season to this point, and although their last four games have ended in defeat there is still much to be positive about for Steve Cotterill’s men.
They are already five points ahead of where they finished last season and there are still six games to go, including today’s clash against Portsmouth at Montgomery Waters Meadow.
And Dunkley, who has started every League One game this season has urged his team-mates to remain focused until the end of the campaign.
He said: “Obviously, when you haven’t got a fully fit squad, that can take its toll on you. But we have to stay strong. Mentally strong and physically strong for these last six games because we want to end on a positive.
“That starts, hopefully, against Portsmouth. It’s not going to be easy, we know it’s not going to be easy. But if we can show that same spirit we showed against Barnsley, we will give ourselves a chance.
“We’ve just got to take it game by game, we’ve got some big games ahead of us.
“But the next hurdle is Portsmouth so we have to study them and see where their strengths are and where we can exploit them.
“We have to take it step-by-step and literally focus on that team because they’re in and around us.
“No game’s easy in this division. They’re a good side and that’s why they are where they are.
“We need to prepare, give them a bit of respect but not too much in the sense that we need to impose ourselves on them.”
Salop have spent much of the season in the top half of the league table and until recently, when they have been struck by a series of injury problems, the play-offs looked like a realistic possibility.
That seems to have passed by now for Shrews, but they are still targetting a top 10 finish and the Town boss Cotterill has said a single-figure finish would be nice.
Dunkley says it is the standard in League One this season and the sizes of the teams in it that make it really tough.
He said: “We’ve been trying to be a part of that, we spoke about that earlier this season – can we push ourselves to the max?
“It’s obviously going to be tough because there are big names in this division.
“But for the most part, we’ve been in that 10th position and I think there are probably 12 or 14 massive clubs that are all trying to go for the same goal and get in the play-offs.
“For us, we can only do the best we can do. It is tough but we have to accept we will come across teams like Plymouth, Portsmouth – and have that hard run on paper.
“But we know when we play to the top of our level we can mix it with them. We have got a few results against those so-called big sides.”
Today’s game against Pompey will be hard, though, with the selection headaches the Town manager has to contend with.
Christian Saydee missed the game on Easter Monday with a knee injury and Rekeil Pyke is a doubt with the Achilles injury he picked up before the international break.
