'Courageous and brave' - boss salutes Shrewsbury Town striker

Shrewsbury Town boss Gavin Cowan saluted the bravery of striker George Lloyd after his penalty sealed three crucial points against Bristol Rovers.

Lloyd stepped up to take the 77th-minute spot-kick and dispatched it onto the bottom corner to make it three wins from their last six games for Salop.

It also lifted them up to 14th in the League Two table after a difficult start to the campaign.

And boss Cowan laughed that it had been so long since Shrews had been awarded a penalty, he had not planned for the eventuality - while hailing Lloyd’s run of form that has seen him claim three goals so far this term.

And he said there were a number of players eager to take responsibility from the spot before Lloyd eventually stepped up.

“ I was really pleased that our goalscorer George Lloyd was brave enough and courageous enough to stand up and take that penalty and smash it in the bottom corner,” said Cowan.

“It had been so long since we had a penalty that we hadn’t even planned for it but what speaks a lot about the squad is that there were two or three, even four of them, chomping at the bit to take it.

“But Lloydy is in a good flow at the moment. He’s got three goals and would have had another against Exeter but it was wrongly disallowed for offside.

Cowan said Lloyd, who scored a total of four goals last season, is seeing the benefit from ‘fine-margin’ changes and a move to occupy a central position more of the time.

Asked what has changed for the 26-year-old striker, Cowan added: “Listen, we do a lot of work. We don’t patronise the players and they're at a stage now whereas they are senior players and this isn’t an academy.

“We are always trying to develop them but the focus is results. Lloydy was in with me and Jamie in the summer and there was a lot of talk about extra sessions and so on, but he’s at a stage in his career where he is not suddenly going to score loads more goals or not score goals.

“It’s fine margins, and maybe a bit of mentality, and he’s now of the mentality that if he moves into the middle of the goal as opposed to outside it he’s going to have more chance of scoring.”