Shrewsbury v Accrington - Match preview

The midfielder was left out of Town’s initial 22-man League One squad under Sam Ricketts but has this week been registered by Shrewsbury’s new man in charge, writes Lewis Cox.

Cotterill oversees his first league match in charge of Salop against Accrington Stanley tonight, with Town 23rd in the third tier after a winless run of eight games brought about the end of Ricketts’ tenure.

Tonight’s 7.45pm Montgomery Waters Meadow kick-off also sees the return of supporters for the first time since 1,000 attended September’s pilot against Northampton. Town are yet to sell out their 2,000 tickets with a few more still available.

The U-turn comes as a huge boost to 25-year-old midfielder Goss, who was left out in the cold by Town’s former management, training alone at times, but was included as a starter by Cotterill in Sunday’s 1-0 FA Cup win over Oxford City, in which he impressed before tiring late on.

Ricketts had previously confirmed that former Manchester United youngsters Goss and Donald Love, both of whom were signed by Ricketts in 2019, were not registered for league action.

Cotterill told the Shropshire Star: “He is available. I thought he did well (on Sunday) for 60 minutes and then he blew up!

“We had a joke about it. At the end of the day the lad’s played no football for whatever reason – opinions in football.

“It’s my decision whether I put him in the 22 and I’ve put him in the 22. We need all the fit and available bodies that we’ve got.

“I think it’ll take him a little while to get up to speed, but then it’s going to do so for everybody. We just need all hands to the pump.

“And for those not in the starting XI, we’ve done extra work with because you don’t get many days to do extra work.

“So hopefully we can try to get them up to a good base fitness, not match fitness, but a base fitness where they don’t break down again.

“It’s a tricky one, tricky for the physio because I’ll say ‘I want players available’ and he’ll say ‘if we put them out too quick they’ll break down’ and he’s right with that.

“Unfortunately we have to be patient but we’ve got what we’ve got at this time and we’ll carry on working with it, to see if we can improve.”

Cotterill confirmed he had not yet had the opportunity to check whether squad numbers and salary cap squad limit rules would allow previously frozen-out right-back Love to be registered for action.

The Town chief, in charge of a league game for the first time since a 2-1 Birmingham defeat at Nottingham Forest on March 3 2018, will be without Ethan Ebanks-Landell tonight as the defender recovers from a head injury that saw him withdrawn from Sunday’s Cup tie.

The boss was, at least, yesterday boosted by the overturning of fellow defender Aaron Pierre’s three-match suspension.

Pierre was controversially dismissed for a late coming together with Oxford City’s James Roberts on Sunday, but the Football Association’s disciplinary panel upheld a claim of wrongful dismissal.

John Coleman’s Accrington, despite playing as many as three league matches fewer than rivals due to the pandemic earlier in the campaign, are flying high in ninth after seven wins from 11 so far.

“I thought I over-cooked it the other day, so I’ve tried to taper my enthusiasm and the knowledge I want to give them, for the better,” Cotterill added.

“We’ve got three games in six days, three games in seven is tough enough but three in six is going to be something we’ve got to be very mindful of.

“It’s incredibly difficult. You can tell lads lots of things but you’ve got to show them. I’ve got to be very mindful of the time they have on the grass (training pitch), that they don’t leave their legs on the grass.

“I’m new to it, managing in Covid, so no doubt along the way I will make some mistakes. It’s a learning curve to me as well.”