Gavin Cowan confident Shrewsbury Town will turn it around after tough start

Gavin Cowan is adamant Shrewsbury Town will turn their fortunes around as he called on supporters to rally behind his side.

Saturday’s defeat at Fleetwood Town was Town’s fourth loss in their opening five League Two games, leaving them 23rd in the table.

It has been a difficult start to the new campaign, but Cowan remains confident a turnaround is coming and urged supporters to keep the faith.

“Supporters want to see results, they want to see success, and I get that,” he said.

“As supporters, we’ve suffered for a while now. And it was my absolute pleasure to come in last year and turn the table around.

“I try and say to the supporters very much what I say to the players - have reason and logic, take emotion out of it, look at the positives, get behind your team, because it’s easy to support a team when they’re 10 unbeaten like Fleetwood. Their supporters today are on top of the world.

“And we’ll be there again. We will be. But we need everyone to stick with us. We need everybody to have the belief that maybe the players are struggling to find.”

The defeat also extended Town’s poor away form, with Salop now without an away goal in their last five league matches.

Since the start of last season, Town have lost more away League Two games than any other side - 18 in total - including all three of their league fixtures on the road this season.

There were 267 Town supporters at Highbury Stadium on Saturday, and Cowan thanked them for their backing.

“I thought our fans were excellent at the end today,” he continued. “Obviously, you’re going to have a couple of disgruntled people who have got up on the wrong side of bed.

“But I thought the supporters were excellent. One thing our supporters will always do is look at the effort.

“I can take a boo at Rochdale, because I’m like, ‘Yeah, we didn’t compete enough’.

“The minimum requirement is that you run for the badge and you love Shrewsbury Town.

“I thought the supporters on the whole were excellent. With me, of course, they just expect me to come up with the answers and that immediate gratification, which is understandable, I’m the man in the job.

“But just trust us. Just trust us in these moments when it’s easy to get emotional about it and see red and perhaps don’t know everything that's going on. I think, just get behind us.”

Town’s difficult start is a stark contrast to the revival Cowan oversaw during the second half of last season, when Salop became one of the most in-form teams in the EFL on their way to safety.

They now sit second bottom after five games following a major squad rebuild over the summer, but Cowan insists the new-look side has improved.

“There’s a lot of belief,” he said. “We’re not doing anything different to when we were winning games.

“We’ve improved the squad, there’s no doubt about that. Yes, we’re young. Yes, they’re new. Yes, they’re trying to learn. But ultimately, we’ll get it right.

“We will get it right, because the players are doubling down on the messages.”