Shrewsbury v Ipswich - Match preview

Much of what the Shrewsbury stand-in boss achieved in the latter stage of his career, and indeed post-playing days, is down to Steve Cotterill, writes Lewis Cox.

But tomorrow he goes toe-to-toe with the other influential figure in his near two-and-a-half decades in football, Ipswich boss Paul Lambert.

Lambert brought Wilbraham to Norwich ‘because I always scored against him’ – in the Town assistant’s words – and the striker achieved his Premier League dream aged 31 at Carrow Road.

Wilbraham and the Canaries achieved a superb 11th-placed finish in the top flight in their debut campaign, where Wilbraham featured 11 times, often very effectively as an impact sub. He would leave for Crystal Palace soon after, winning promotion to the top flight again.

It was Lambert who first recommended the Shrews stand-in chief complete his coaching badges and the Ipswich boss, formerly in charge of Villa and Wolves, also reached out to Wilbraham during last year’s long summer Covid lockdown, when the striker was without a club having been released by Rochdale.

“Paul Lambert is someone I’ve always spoken really highly of – my two best managers were Steve Cotterill and Paul Lambert.

“I know he’s a great manager, I know he’ll have them fired up, I know he has high standards.”

Lambert’s Ipswich have stuttered this season. They have won just once in five games and have slipped to 11th. They are closer to Shrewsbury, in 17th, than the automatic promotion places and have lost two more league games (10) than Salop this season.

But Wilbraham knows more than most what his former manager is capable of.

He added: “I know how good he is, I know he’ll get it right if he feels like things haven’t gone well.

“I know his assistant Matthew Gill from playing at Norwich, I know they are the right men in charge.”

Town’s No.2 continued on Lambert: “He text me when I lost my mum last year.

“Actually, when I wasn’t playing in the lockdown situation when football started again, and he’d seen I didn’t have a club, he invited me to go and watch training there.

“He was one of the people who told me to get my coaching badges does back then. I remember him saying ‘I think you’ll be brilliant if you get into it’. He said football is all about trust and you are trustworthy.

“He was probably the first one to put it in my head so I thank him for that. He gave me the chance to play in the Premier League at the age of 31 when I thought my chance had passed.

“I can’t thank him enough for taking a gamble.”

Wilbraham would surely never have thought, when Cotterill approached him about becoming his assistant in December, how the next couple of months would pan out.

Tomorrow will be the No.2’s seventh game at the helm of Shrewsbury while his current boss is recovering in hospital. Two have seen him lock horns with another of his former Bristol City gaffers.

“Being Steve Cotterill’s assistant has been a massive thing for me because I rate him as the best manager I’ve had,” he said.

“And now I’m up against another manager I rate so highly, I’ve also come up against one of my ex-managers Lee Johnson twice in this short time, it is a bit crazy with these relationships.

“Half of the Sunderland staff are still half of Phil Parkinson’s staff, who I played under at Bolton. It’s probably more weird for them to see me in this position!

“They know I was a bad loser as a player, so they know what to expect in this position. There are no friends on Saturday between 3 and 5 o’clock.”