Steve Cotterill: Shrewsbury must be smarter

Cotterill, who takes his side to face Sunderland at the Stadium of Light in tomorrow’s Bank Holiday clash, will continue to add to his Town ranks during the close-season in his second summer at the club.

The manager explained how Town’s transfer budget pales in comparison to the likes of the league’s big hitters, including last weekend’s opposition Ipswich, and the club will again need to recruit smart and look for certain characters.

“Their (Ipswich’s) wage bill will probably be four or five times ours. As I’ve said to our boys you can predominantly pick who you want if you’re Ipswich,” Cotterill said.

“Everybody talks about recruitment, but you’re not going to go and buy a brand new Mercedes for 10 grand.

“You’ve got to go somewhere else to buy a different make of car, because that’s not going to happen.

“We have to rely a lot on getting good lads that are going to be part of a team. Ipswich have got some very good players, you only have to look at their bench last weekend – and that’ll happen in a few games we have left.

“The strength of people’s bench is enormous, even when the game gets tight they can chuck on a couple of real good individual talents.

“Ipswich individually and collectively have better players than we have – the lads know that – and that’s why our team ethic always has to be good here.”

Tomorrow’s in-form promotion-hunting hosts Sunderland are set to welcome another bumper crowd in the North East. Their last home gate was more than 31,000 and a late goal last week at promotion rivals Oxford saw the Black Cats extend an eight-game unbeaten run. Alex Neil’s side sit sixth in League One.

“We’ve had plenty of opportunities go against us this season where someone has scored a goal late in the game,” the Town boss added.

“Whenever we play any of these big teams at home they’re always going to be dangerous, they have a great following behind them and there’s not as much pressure at our stadium compared to when they play at some of their stadiums.

“So they can be dangerous and play more freely away.”