Shropshire Star

How Dubai holiday meet brought Shrewsbury Town pair Steve Cotterill and Aaron Wilbraham together

Sometimes in life, and indeed football, there are sliding doors moments.

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Aaron Wilbraham, then a veteran 34-year-old centre-forward released at the end of his contract at Premier League Crystal Palace, could never have imagined a family summer holiday to Dubai would pave the way for six more fruitful seasons and a pathway intro coaching.

Wilbraham's first meeting with Steve Cotterill, who was in charge at League One Bristol City, was purely by chance.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Shrewsbury Town's stand-in manager, now 41 and currently taking the reins for the ill and absent Cotterill, takes up the story: "I'd left Crystal Palace at the end of my contract and had talks with Coventry and Birmingham that summer.

"Me, my wife and daughter went to Dubai and I saw Steve Cotterill in the lounge of the hotel. I said to my wife 'that's Steve Cotterill the Bristol City manager'.

"My friend was there at the time, Sam Baldock, I said it was Sam's manager. I introduced myself, shook his hand and said hello, we had a bit of a chat.

"That was kind of it, but I kept seeing him in the gym nearly every day. I'd got a leg problem so was given a programme from the Palace fitness coach.

"I was in the gym doing my stuff and kept seeing the manager, he told me at a later date that he'd go and check in the book where you sign in, to see how often I was going to see him, whether I was a good professional or not on my holiday.

"Luckily enough I'd been in nearly every day. He called me over a few days later to ask if I'd signed anywhere, because he knew I was out of contract.

"I hadn't and he asked me if I'd come for talks at Bristol when I got back. He said that because of my age, I was 34, I'd probably have to sign just a year contract and put something about playing so many games, which we did.

"I went for talks and from the minute I met him and Keith Burt I just liked the way he sold the club, the place, and it seemed like the place to be.

"He asked me if I'd ever scored 20 goals in a season and I told him no, he said 'you will this season', and he ended up being right.

"By the end of the season we won the JPT (Johnstone's Paint Trophy) at Wembley, we won the league, I'd scored 21 goals and he made me captain, and I'd missed about nine weeks with a hip flex injury.

"He got a great return from me and that was all down to the gaffer, he was a striker himself and a good striker, he taught me loads of good runs to make, not to do as much work out of the box and to hold the play, link it and get in the box between the sticks, that's where he wanted me.

"He was such a good coach for me and just gave me that belief, if every coach was like that you would be getting 20 goals every season! That's the type of belief he gives you.

"But it was a chance meeting in Dubai, which is crazy."

Wilbraham certainly proved the Ashton Gate doubters wrong with a prolific and influential stint in helping the Robins back to the Championship.

The duo look back at their club-record points haul and double-winning campaign with a real sense of pride.

For Wilbraham, there was plenty more in the tank. Having left City he joined Bolton Wanderers and netted a memorable final-day winner to not only keep the club in Championship, but to have 'saved' Bolton.

He then moved on tor Rochdale, making more headlines as a 40-year-old FA Cup goalscorer against Premier League Newcastle and taking his evergreen career into a fourth decade until the pandemic halted him in his tracks – but offered him the route into coaching.

Wilbraham added: "I did another six seasons after that summer I met him, aged 34, and got to play until almost 41 and I probably owe a lot of that to the gaffer.

"A lot of Bristol City fans, having just come down from the Championship and wanting to go back up, probably questioned the fact they'd signed a 34-year-old who hadn't scored a lot of goals – although I'd scored 17 and 15 with the odd good season – but wasn't exactly prolific and was more a targetman.

"But he went against all that because he has such strong beliefs and it paid off, it was definitely a good thing for me."