Steve Cotterill urges Shrewsbury caution
Steve Cotterill has urged Shrewsbury defender Tom Flanagan to be more careful – with the defender expecting to return from a one-match suspension at the weekend.
The 30-year-old, who signed in the January transfer window from Sunderland, has accumulated five bookings in his 10 appearances so far this season.
His latest booking at Cheltenham meant he missed last weekend’s 2-1 victory over MK Dons as he served his suspension.
And Town boss Steve Cotterill believes the Northern Ireland international has picked up a couple of cautions that were unnecessary.
He said: “We could have done with not losing Tom last weekend.
“I think he has picked a couple of bookings this season that I don’t think he needed to pick up if I am honest.
“He is a very competitive player, and he is a good player, but what he can’t do is he cannot win every ball.”
Earlier in the season, Flanagan was sent off in controversial circumstances for two bookings against Accrington Stanley, but the red card was later rescinded.
When the defender gets to 10 yellow cards, he will miss two games rather than just one. And Cotterill has urged the experienced international to take more care in order to avoid further yellow cards – but he did say this was something the defender had already admitted.
“Sometimes he needs to put the brakes on because weeks like last week potentially might have cost us if there wasn’t the flexibility in the team,” he said. “So he has to bear that in mind.
“I spoke to him briefly about that.
“He knows that himself.
“He knew it at the time to be fair to him, and he did say that it was a silly booking.”
Flanagan’s suspension turned out to be an even bigger blow when Matthew Pennington went off with an injury to his groin in the first half. It meant skipper Luke Leahy had to fill in, and it made Town much more vulnerable to conceding from set-plays.
But the boss confirmed Pennington’s injury is not as bad as it could have been.
“It is not as bad as we first feared,” Cotterill said speaking ahead of Town’s trip to Fleetwood.
“He is going to be a late shout. He is better but it’s going to be one of those where we have to leave it up to the last minute.”
