Shrewsbury Town boss Gavin Cowan sets high-intensity tone ahead of Colchester United test
Gavin Cowan has hailed the character of his Shrewsbury Town players following an "intense" week in training.
The head coach has had a full week to work with his squad after having just two days to prepare for his first match in charge against Barnet last weekend.
Cowan faces his first away trip to Colchester United tomorrow, aiming to end Salop's four-game losing run on the road in League Two. With the club sitting 22nd in the table, training has been high intensity in a bid for a rapid turnaround.
The Salop head coach said: "It's been intense. We've made it that way though.
"It's not needed to be, but we've made it that way because we've got a short period of time between now and the end of the season, and everybody's hands on deck just trying to bring some of our own structure in, trying to bring a lot of unity, togetherness, and confidence into the players.
"You appreciate it's not nice when you're going to work every day and things aren't going well. You want to try and turn it around, and they're showing a lot of character at the moment.
"There's definitely been a lot of buy-in, so it's full credit to the players and obviously we want to take that out onto the pitch against Colchester."
Salop visit a Colchester side who remain firmly in the play-off hunt. The Essex club sit 12th in League Two with 11 wins and are seven points off the top seven.
Momentum, however, has stalled after consecutive 1-0 defeats to Grimsby Town and Crewe Alexandra.
"You expect them to have a little bit of swagger about them and pace and power," added Cowan.
"We've got to combat that and make sure that we dominate the big moments.
"Everything between the boxes sometimes becomes a bit futile if you can dominate the big moments. That's what we'll be really hopeful of.
"I'm excited to go back to Colchester, where I'm originally from. It'll be good to see friends and family but it'll be even better to get three points."
