Gavin Cowan will accept 'c**p performance' for Shrewsbury Town win

Gavin Cowan admitted he would love a “c**p performance” as long as Shrewsbury Town emerge with the three points against Northampton Town at Croud Meadow on Saturday.

Shrewsbury sit second-bottom in the embryonic League Two table, after suffering four defeats from their opening five games.

After getting off the mark with a 1-0 home success against Salford City, Shrewsbury went on to lose back-to-back games on the road at Rochdale and Fleetwood Town respectively.

Cowan insisted that his players are refusing to hide during this dark period, but reiterated that results need to improve and fast.

“Still on board” - Cowan on Shrewsbury’s resilience

“Times like this with players, you often see them going into little dark corners,” head coach Cowan explained.

“It’s not happening, they’re still fully on board with it, and they know that we’ve got to be accountable in both boxes because that’s the name of the game.

“That’s not what we’re doing at the moment and we’re putting in decent performances in terms of overall play.

“But everyone wants to see results. I’d just love a c**p performance and three points.

“Football does it to you. It drags you down in the mud and if you’ve got anything about you, you come out fighting.

Shrewsbury have struggled at both ends of the pitch so far this season: scoring just twice and shipping an alarming total of 10.

Time to reset, suggests Cowan

Cowan believes that the results have not necessarily reflected the performances, but hopes that a free week will allow his team to reset ahead of their return to home soil.

“The players need a mental rest. I think just getting a result [after losing 2-0 at Fleetwood], a draw would have just been everything that they needed,” he continued.

“They deserved it and I feel for them. I feel like we could have just stayed in the game a little longer.

“We could have defended the second goal a bit better, but we were just so on the front-foot that we left ourselves open and a bit exposed.

“And we didn’t control the big moments, but I think the players just need that part of the week to try and defuse.”

Northampton suffered relegation to the EFL’s basement division last term, after two seasons in League One.

They started the new campaign with three draws and a defeat from their opening four games, before finally getting off the mark with a 1-0 home win over Newport County courtesy of Joe O’Brien Whitmarsh’s 87th-minute strike last weekend.

Shrewsbury injury latest

On the injury front, Jack Price continues his spell on the sidelines with a hamstring injury, while uncertainty remains over Josh Ruffels’ availability.

The defender was withdrawn at half-time during the Shrews’ 3-0 loss at Rochdale last Tuesday and Cowan later revealed that he had suffered a knee injury.

Ruffels sat out the trip to Fleetwood as a result and Cowan is still unsure if Ruffels will be available for selection.

“I don’t know, I hope so. It’s just a bit of a funny one where he jarred his knee,” he revealed.