Harry Burgoyne targeting Shrewsbury push for promotion next season

Town’s turnaround since Steve Cotterill’s November appointment has been significant. Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Portsmouth was just a fifth in 22 league games.

With 11 games remaining, Shrewsbury, in 17th, have put themselves 10 points clear of the League One drop zone. Town are 8th in the league table since Cotterill’s appointment, with three games on hand on rivals above them.

And goalkeeper Burgoyne, 24, who is under contract at Montgomery Waters Meadow until summer 2022, sees big things for Shrewsbury next season, with Cotterill hopefully back in the dugout after his long battle with serious ill-health.

Burgoyne, who has started Town’s last two games with Matija Sarkic on international duty, said: “I really want to secure myself here at Shrewsbury Town Football Club and be a part of a really successful time.

“I’m really excited about what the manager has brought in since he’s come in, I think he’s been terrific.

“I’m really excited for the future of Shrewsbury Town Football Club. I can’t see us not going to compete to get promoted.

“I feel as if the way we’re setting up, the players we’ve got, the management and good feel about the place, I feel like there’s no stopping us really.”

Town have taken 37 points from a possible 66 since Cotterill’s appointment, a fine haul given they only worked directly with the manager for around one month before the club’s widespread Covid-19 outbreak and the manager’s subsequent illness, which has kept him away for near three months.

But the manager has ensured that, be it from Bristol Royal Infirmary or his home in the city, he has remained influential in planning training and giving orders on matchdays.

Former Wolves youngster Burgoyne believes one of the boss’s great qualities is the ability to drain every inch out of a player, even if it requires harsh words and home truths.

“He’s a really straight-talking person that tells you how it is,” added the goalkeeper, who has played 17 times this season. “I just feel like he squeezes everybody like a sponge. If he sees another five per cent to get out of you, he will get it out of you.

“It doesn’t matter if he has to upset you to get it out of you, he will get it out of you, but in the long run it’s for your benefit. I think that’s a really good quality to have.

“And his presence before games and stuff – at the minute he’s only over a phone call so we can only hear his voice – but the presence before games and at half-time, he can still have that affect on games when he’s so far away.

“I can’t imagine how tough it’s been for the gaffer but I’d like to think we’ve all been working so hard to do him proud every weekend and training every day. The sooner he’s back the better.

“But Dave (Longwell) and Albie (Aaron Wilbraham) have been absolutely terrific in taking training and doing all the little extras you want to do, they’ve been different class.”

It remains to be seen whether Burgoyne will remain between the sticks for the upcoming Bank Holiday double-header against Northampton and Plymouth on Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Sarkic has twice been an unused substitute for Montenegro, who welcome Norway in World Cup qualifying action tonight.

It remains to be seen when Wolves loanee Sarkic will return to English soil.

Town academy prospect Lewis Duberry, meanwhile, has twice been an unused sub for Caribbean island Montserrat in their Concacaf World Cup qualifiers.