Shrewsbury looking to hit goal trail
Steve Cotterill is delighted Shrewsbury Town have started contributing goals from all over the pitch – but has urged his strikers to add more.
Defender Matthew Pennington is Salop’s joint top scorer in League One with three goals after netting the equaliser in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw against Oxford United.
That is the same number as attacking midfielders Tom Bayliss and Jordan Shipley – the latter who has played left-wing-back since injury to George Nurse in September – while Christian Saydee and Ryan Bowman are the top-scoring strikers with two goals each.
When asked about goals coming from everywhere, Town boss Cotterill said: “Apart from the strikers at the moment!
“We’ve needed that and it’s funny now it’s happened but there would always be a weight on Dan Udoh last season or Ryan Bowman last season so it’s good that we’re getting goals all over the pitch.
“That’s really important for us. We just need to get a few more from our strikers!”
Udoh suffered a long-term injury early in the campaign and Bowman has often had to make do as back-up to loanees Saydee and Rob Street. And though they are yet to start hitting the net regularly, they are impressing in other areas. “What they have done is cause havoc in areas and other people have got that room so I think they’ve done very well,” said Cotterill. “It’s a team game and we haven’t scored enough goals but if you look at the chances we’ve created – you can’t go on there and tap it in for them – but they’ve been the bonus for me.
“It’s more of a problem if you don’t create them. If we keep creating them then the law of averages says we’ll take them. We do look like we have goals in us.”
Victory over Oxford on Wednesday would have taken Town up to eighth in the League One table, and though they were forced to settle for a point 10th, the boss was hoping to see a similar performance on their return to Montgomery Waters Meadow to face Barnsley today.
“We said the other night against Oxford that if we’d won we could’ve gone eighth and if we hadn’t got that equaliser – and by the way, we deserved that at the very least – they would have gone above us.,” said Cotterill. “We definitely deserved to win the game the other night so we’re looking forward to this weekend now and hopefully, we can perform that well again.”
