Steve Cotterill hails 'memorable' night for Shrewsbury Town youngsters
Manager Steve Cotterill hailed a memorable night for Shrewsbury Town's academy but tempered expectation on the club's promising youngsters.
Goals from 17-year-old Tom Bloxham and full debutant Louis Lloyd capped a memorable 3-1 turnaround victory against Wolves under-21s in the Papa John's Trophy.
Bloxham, Lloyd, Charlie Caton, 18, and 17-year-old Callum Wilson - who enjoyed his first involvement with the first team - were all given starts in a much-changed Town side, who fell behind before responding excellently in the second half.
"It's a memorable night for the football club and a memorable night for them (players) as well when they end up getting to play in the first team," said Cotterill.
"Because that's the idea of having an academy. The only thing is, we have to be careful, we are not that far ahead that all of a sudden the academy players can drop in the team, because they're not physically developed yet.
"Their fitness levels will always drop because they haven't quite got the strength of the other boys yet. But these games will help them out no end."
Rekeil Pyke added the gloss for Town with a late third - his first goal in over a year, but it was a night for the Salop youngsters to savour.
Cotterill, whose side went second in their Trophy group, said: "Probably out of all of them you'd have to say Callum was excellent, I was really pleased for him. He's such a nice lad.
"You want your debut to be a memorable one and the lads gave him a round of applause in there."
