Salop Social: Shrewsbury Town prepare to host leaders

Steve Jones

It doesn’t seem that long ago since Shrewsbury’s League One revival began in earnest against Saturday’s opponents Hull City.

But, somehow, 16 games have been squeezed in between mid-December and last weekend.

The win that day ended a run of 10 games without victory and was just the second in the first 16 fixtures of the season.

If the disappointment of last weekend’s draw against Charlton was a sign of the progress made, it will also be interesting to see how Town fare against the league leaders with three months’ worth of progress under their belts.

They may have to upset the form book again as Hull have won their last five. But, as Shrewsbury have proven, there is no team to fear this season, regardless of league position.

Aaron Wilbraham continues to do a great job deputising for the recovering Steve Cotterill, who got his first league win as Town boss against the Tigers, but at this rate we may need him to start playing as well.

His record last season is better than Daniel Udoh’s in this campaign.

Nathan Rowden

It’s a rare occurrence that social media leaves you with a nice positive feeling, but this week I was delighted when scrolling through my Twitter feed to see two really great bits of news.

The first was a superb update that we have all been waiting for. The gaffer Steve Cotterill has finally been released from hospital and is now back home recovering with his family.

Since joining Shrewsbury Steve has shown nothing but dedication to the cause and to hear he is on the mend is great. Even while ill he has been doing all he can to help and guide the team, and that shows that we have got some boss at the helm.

Get well Steve, take it easy, we’ll be waiting for you when you come back.

The second piece of great news was a video shared by the club account which showed Aaron Pierre back running in training, indicating a return to action could be very soon.

As always with social media there were some daft rumours flying around the last few weeks about Pierre’s absence which don’t need to be repeated, but one things for sure, having Pierre back at the centre of our defence for the run-in is going to be huge.

Despite having an iffy start to the season, since Steve Cotterill has arrived Aaron has been a rock.

While the likes of Ethan Ebanks-Landell, Ro-Shaun Williams and Matthew Pennington have coped admirably in his absence, I always feel there is a lack of real leadership at the back when Pierre is out the side.

He’s the sort of player that you can imagine wins you the game against Charlton last week by making sure that clean sheet is intact, and that is why it’s great news he’s back.

Chris Hudson

Shrewsbury Town had their best win of the season this week.

No, I’ve not gone mad and forgotten Charlton Athletic’s late equaliser on Saturday. I am referring, of course, to Steve Cotterill’s discharge from hospital.

Cotterill’s battle with Covid has been bigger than anything faced by his team in recent weeks. That he has recovered enough to return home again is extremely good news.

I’ve been among those saying he should put the phone down during matches and focus on his health.

I still think that would be the sensible thing to do, but football is so interwoven within Cotterill’s DNA that I suspect he will carry on regardless.

And who is anyone to tell him what is best for him, really? He knows his own body and his own state of mind. I suspect the sense of purpose he gets from going about the day job is a big part of motivating himself to get better.

This is a man who had been out of football for more than two and a half years before Town came calling in the autumn. Having got back on the merry-go-round and done so well, I’m sure he’s determined to do all he can to stay there.

And if he can inspire us to an unlikely double over league leaders Hull, then it’ll be the second best win of the week!