Danny Coyne: Shrewsbury Town squad showed they can be called on
Goalkeeping coach Danny Coyne hailed the manner in which Shrewsbury Town's squad impressed during last night's impressive 3-1 victory over Peterborough.
The play-off hopefuls visited Montgomery Waters Meadow keen to keep faint hopes of a top six finish alive and looked good for their target as they led 1-0 at the break.
But a second half fightback with goals from Omar Beckles, Stefan Payne and Lenell John-Lewis helped Paul Hurst's men secure a first win in a five and helped confidence flood back in the stands at the Meadow.
Hurst again opted to hand members of his first-team a rest after a demanding season and made five changes from the weekend draw with Bury. Luke Hendrie, Sam Jones, Craig MacGillivray, Nathan Thomas and Payne all returned to start.
Jon Nolan and Shaun Whalley were again rested, alongside Mat Sadler and James Bolton. Carlton Morris, Alex Rodman and Dean Henderson were unused from the bench.
Coyne, filling in press duties for Hurst, said: “The gaffer has been saying from day one that it’s a squad game.
"The whole squad are involved all the time and at some point they’re all going to be called upon. They’ve got to be ready, they’ve got to be fit and they have got to be good to go.
“On Craig, when you come into a team when you haven’t played for a while, and this is the same for the outfielders – they need that match sharpness and that match fitness.
“So it’s difficult for some of the lads but once they got into their stride, especially second half I thought they were excellent. Sam (Jones) came in and he’s looked very dangerous going forward with the ball so there is a lot of positives that the manager can take from today.”
Coyne, who has been registered to play for Town this season, suggested that Town responded admirably from what was a poor opening 45 minutes in which Posh took a 14th minute lead.
"The lads responded to the managers team talk at half time, took everything on board and you could see the result of that second half," added the former Wales international.
“We were on the front foot, passed it a lot better, created a lot more chances and we got the result in the end. It was very pleasing. Were made up for all the lads that scored, they work at it in training quite a lot and today it was nice that they got the reward at the end of it.”
He reserved praise for stand-in shot-stopper MacGillivray, who made a stunning one-handed save to deny Leonardo Da Silva Lopes and keep the margin at one goal shortly before Town drew level.
Coyne added that the former Walsall man has not put a foot wrong in any of his 13 Town appearances this term.
Former caretaker boss Coyne added: “He did great, he stood up well and put the onus back on the centre forward to try and beat him. He got a good strong hand to the ball, kept it out.
“Overall I thought he was excellent tonight, it’s difficult coming in as a goalkeeper when you haven’t played for a while but every time he has done that this season, I think he has performed admirably. He’s been excellent so were made up for him. It was a great time to make that save and the lads kicked off from that and got a result.”
