Steve Cotterill 'couldn't give a damn' after touchline scuffle

Bloxham, 17, scored a brilliant acrobatic bicycle kick on the hour for his side's first league goal of the season to bring Shrewsbury on terms with Gillingham, for whom Jack Tucker headed in an early lead.

Sam Cosgrove also scored his first Town goal with 20 minutes left with a fine finish to earn Cotterill's men a priceless first win and points of the league season.

But the contest ended in controversy as a flashpoint in the dugout concluded with four red cards. Town's David Davis and Gillingham's Daniel Phillips were shown second yellow cards for a coming together before anger spilled out into the dugout and Steve Evans' assistant Paul Raynor and Shrews' sub keeper Harry Burgoyne was dismissed by referee Sam Allison for getting involved.

The Town boss said of Bloxham: "I wanted to bring young players for the chairman. Last year we had a bigger squad but we needed young players to come through, we brought Nathanael to the club, Tom's coming through, Charlie Caton, I want to see more of these play on Tuesday night."

Cotterill added: "It feels really good, I thought the players showed incredible character.

"When you've been on the run we've been on and you've got a home game and to be 1-0 down against a team like Gillingham is incredibly difficult.

"I think they showed incredible character today. They were resolute, determined and in the end I felt it was a game we deserved to win anyway.

"I wanted a little bit more zip in our play. We didn't change anything tactically, the change of play was a little slow. I have to say the pitch was really dry, I don't know why, although it was a warm day. That's not good for us, we want the ball to move quicker."

Birmingham loanee Cosgrove swept home a fine finish to turn the scoreline on its head in the second half. The striker has previously missed a couple of gilt-edged chances before the break.

Cotterill added: "I said to him yesterday I wanted to see more devilment in his play, i think that was needed.

"And the goal was excellent, a great finish, he maybe could've done that in the first half but unselfish as he is he tried to set up Dan Udoh, which was probably the wrong decision.

"But he more than made up for it in the second half. I thought they were two great goals.

"I thought we didn't give them too much of a look-in at the end. When they changed formation and it went four on four I thought our lads were excellent."

Unsavoury scenes at the end, following the dismissal of midfielders Davis and Phillips in stoppage time, saw Cotterill, Gills boss Evans and assistant Raynor and Burgoyne - among other staff and substitutes - involved in a big melee.

Video footage appears to show Burgoyne jumping to hold Raynor off Cotterill, who had got in between the Shrews' manager and counterpart Evans.

Cotterill said: "I'll tell you how I saw it - that potentially he (Davis) was going to get a red card, but seemingly he didn't.

"So then I was wondering whether I'd got it wrong on Digga being booked or not.

"For me it was disappointing it was brought to their attention - but what can you do about that?

"I don't know why Harry was given a red card. But he's come in and said sorry.

"I'm not sure the ref had the best of games to be honest, anyone can get a red card when the referee's had the day he had today."

Asked if it was an unfortunate finale to a first league win, Cotterill replied: "No, I don't give a damn about it.

"I'm really fine with it, I don't give a damn. It just shows how tight-knit they all are, because everybody was together through it and there will be a lot more months we'll need that spirit, it was excellent."

Evans admitted afterwards he was 'appalled' at the incident. He said: “What happened at the end, I will let the video show that, but I’m appalled by the actions of some people.

“I’ve not seen the video but I am appalled."