Steve Cotterill pleased with Shrewsbury fightback

Town extended their run of seven games unbeaten in League One - six under the new boss - with a share of the spoils in a battling and at times scrappy affair at the DW Stadium, where the visitors were the more threatening for the most part.

In-form Town flyer Shaun Whalley was the goal hero again, netting his fifth of the season to stand the No.7 out as top scorer, as Salop struck back 20 minutes after falling behind to a penalty conceded 30 seconds into the restart.

Town had the best chances throughout, with the returning Leon Clarke off target and Whalley denied, although the second-bottom hosts did fashion a couple of openings of their own late on.

And after the excellent run of wins at promotion chasers Hull, Lincoln and Doncaster, Cotterill was very pleased at how his charges reacted to a new challenge and responded to going a goal down.

He said: "I think the verdict is that in the second half we deserved three points.

"It was a bit of a slow start to the second half conceding the penalty, no qualms with that, Ro's (Shaun Williams) tried to get inside him but it's bounced kindly for him (Tom Pearce) and he's clipped him.

"I think towards the end of the game we were the side in the ascendancy, I thought we were the team looking for the winning goals.

"Maybe with half hour to go if you'd have given them a point maybe they'd have taken it, but when we scored the goal we wouldn't have done."

Williams clipped the heels of Pearce to allow Will Keane the chance to put Wigan ahead just a minute into the second period, which the forward duly obliged.

But Salop, who were the better side before the break, improved and continued to ask questions of the Latics backline.

And Whalley's equaliser owed much to the creative spark of surprise inclusion of on-loan Brentford teenage midfielder Jan Zamburek, given the nod by Cotterill for his first involvement in a league squad since the boss' appointment a month ago.

The Czech youngster turned expertly and delivered an incisive ball to pick out Whalley's diagonal run into the box and Whalley's sharp turn out-foxed his defender before the attacker finished a fifth goal of the season with aplomb for his fourth in seven games.

Cotterill added: "It was a great move, lovely passing, great touch, turn and great finish.We're delighted with that.

"There were a few other things that were flashing across the box today, I'd have taken a scrappy one for our second but there were loads of positives to come out of today.

"We went a goal down, it was a different challenge for us, a fourth game (in a row) away from home.

"It was good for us. I saw lots of positives, I'm as pleased with this draw going 1-0 down as I am with any of the other 1-0 wins away.

"We could've done better for the first 35 seconds of the second half, other than that I don't have too many gripes."

He added: "We may have won a game at Hull, Lincoln and Doncaster that we didn't deserve to and deserved a point but today I think we deserved all three and end up with one.

"That's why the good teams at the end of the season over 46 games are consistent. I said to the boys early on when I came in that if they can't win then don't get beat and they were more than good enough for their point today."

Zamburek was joined by returning striker Leon Clarke in the Town XI. Experienced frontman Clarke starting for the first time since October 24 after being sidelined with a hamstring injury.

And Cotterill was quick to praise Zamburek for his impact in the more offensive midfield role, which has been occupied by Sean Goss and Dave Edwards in recent weeks.

"Janni hasn't had a lot of opportunities under me, there's a loan trigger we have to look at, I needed to see him in a game," said Cotterill.

"And to be fair to him, having not had a lot of football - he played left wing-back against Lincoln (in the EFL Trophy) and did very well that night and I thought he did very well again today.

"He gives us good composure, he gets us side on like we want the '10' (position) to and I thought he played very well.

"Leon had a run out the other day, we got 20 or 30 minutes in and when you do start them they have a dip after 30 minutes, we had that before half-time and I planned on burning him for another 15 minutes of the second half but he ended up doing longer. I thought he was excellent, really good.

"We've just got to be careful, with a lot of games in a short space of time."

Cotterill confirmed to the Shropshire Star that assistant manager Aaron Wilbraham was again absent from the fixture as he continues a period of isolation after being informed a family member had been in contact with a positive Covid-19 case.

Wilbraham, who was brought to the club by Cotterill, was also missing for the midweek trip to Doncaster and the Town boss expects to know more in the coming week.