Dave Edwards: Shrewsbury won’t celebrate safety
Dave Edwards insists Shrewsbury Town should aim for far better than to celebrate avoiding the drop.
While the midfielder admits it has been a successful second half of the campaign for Town in beating the drop in trying circumstances under Steve Cotterill, he sees far brighter possibilities for his hometown club.
Edwards, 35, has opened the door on extending his Town career into next season and sees bigger and better things with experienced boss Cotterill at the helm.
Ahead of tonight’s visit of promotion-hunting Lincoln City, Edwards feels there is no reason why Town cannot be in a similar position to the Imps next season.
“I’ve always wanted to be fighting at the other end of the table with this club,” said Edwards. “Even last year and this year I’ve believed we’re capable of that. Celebrating safety? I don’t believe it’s something this football club should be aiming for.
“I believe we’ve got more as a football club to offer than just staying in League One.”
Edwards knows that, having extended their League One stay for a seventh consecutive season. Town fans want to enjoy the ride that comes with a push at the top end.
He added: “It wont be fun for the fans if every season is a dogfight like it has been every season barring the one with Paul Hurst a few years ago.
“That shows we’re capable of it, with the right team, players and man in charge, anything is achievable. That’s what we need to be doing.
“I do think it’s been a successful season, or second half of it, when you look at everything we’ve had to go through and adversity as a club, to come through it safe with four games left – if somebody had offered you that at the start of December you’d have snapped their hands off.”
Edwards stressed the importance of finishing the final four matches strongly.
“We need a strong end and that’s why Saturday was so important to break the losing run,” he said.
“We have two real tough home games with Lincoln and Oxford and we needed more confidence going in.
“You don’t want to finish the season not winning in the last eight or whatever, that would not have been good for morale next season and for the manager making decisions on players.
“And also the way the fans look on it, if we finish strongly the fans will see it as a more successful season, when you take into account the circumstances the position we were in and not having the manager for four months.
“It’s been a season that we can be proud of, the way we’ve dug in and stuck together, we’ve been really resilient, and if we finish the season strongly others will see that as well.”
