Steve Cotterill: Shrewsbury Town will not be rushed into transfers

Town slumped to a 2-0 defeat at a rejuvenated Morecambe, who enjoyed a memorable afternoon in their first home fixture at this level.

The visitors conceded both goals in the final 15 minutes of the first period, firstly from an Adam Phillips penalty conceded by Nathanael Ogbeta - playing in an unfamiliar midfield role - before Cole Stockton pounced to turn in from close range after an unfortunate bonce from a corner.

Noteworthy for the visitors was their slight squad, with Ethan Ebanks-Landell (Covid), Ryan Bowman (hamstring) and Shaun Whalley (hand) all unavailable.

That meant the boss could only name a six-man substitute bench, which also included two goalkeepers and two teenage centre-forwards in Shrews' first away game in front of supporters - 471 of them - for 18 months.

Disappointed boss Cotterill reiterated his stance on holding out in the window for a better quality of player, with a little over a fortnight left of dealings to be done. The boss said nothing was imminent in terms of new signings.

"There's nothing we can do about that, it won't make the recruitment any more urgent, it certainly won't do that - because then we'll be going into that panic mode, which we don't want to get into, we definitely have to spend our money wisely at Shrewsbury," Cotterill said.

"What we can't do anything about is Ethan testing positive, Ryan Bowman nicking his hamstring in the last kick of training and I definitely can't do anything about Shaun Whalley's hand re-opening and having to have it re-stitched.

"I know it leaves us a bit light but I don't know what I can do about those things, other than give the young boys the opportunity to get on the pitch, Tom Bloxham has got on again and I thought he did very well. Maybe young Tom getting on the pitch is a plus-point, but it's scant consolation."

Whalley's hand injury sustained against Burton in the opening-day defeat will be assessed daily ahead of Tuesday's trip to Portsmouth and scan results on Bowman's hamstring are due on Monday. Ebanks-Landell also misses the trip to Fratton Park.

Cotterill was unhappy with the 'stupid' penalty given away by Ogbeta, who was wrong side of Stockton and then revealed his frustration for a blind pass from David Davis, which was intercepted in the build up to the hosts' second.

New loanee Sam Cosgrove made his debut as a half-time sub but was unable to help the turn the game in his side's favour.

Cotterill said of the defeat: "It was certainly not very good, certainly the first half anyway.

"There was nothing in the game, in fact I think we started the game as the better team and then we gave away a stupid penalty.

"We get wrong side of the ball and give away a stupid penalty that really, I think, gave them a leg up in the game.

"It was already a euphoric time here for them today to come here, it was probably not a good time to come here to a new team who've just been promoted.

"So it didn't take long for them to get going when we gave them a leg up. In fact up until then I was quite happy with how we were, we needed more of a cutting edge up top but other than that we were OK.

"The second goal we've played a blind pass that's got intercepted and give away the corner. They're lucky with the corner as it hits one of their lads on the back of the leg and it falls to Stockton who scores from two yards.

"The play up to the corner we weren't happy with, the blind pass I'm more annoyed about than the freak nature of the second goal.

"We've given ourselves a mountain to climb like the other night and we're not going to do that all the time.

"For me there wasn't enough spark about us, enough determination, we weren't tough enough in those moments. I don't think we did enough to get anything out the game, even though it was very even regards possession."