Gavin Cowan hopes to move ‘onwards and upwards’ with Shrewsbury under new owners
The Shropshire outfit were taken over by American owners earlier this week.
Shrewsbury boss Gavin Cowan hailed a new era for the club after his side sealed a 2-1 victory over Oldham.
The Shropshire outfit were taken over by new American owners earlier this week with Brad Friedel named their sporting director.
Quick-fire goals within four second-half minutes from Kevin Berkoe and Josh Davison put the hosts two goals to the good.
Favour Fawunmi pulled one back in stoppage time, but the Shrews held on for a memorable victory for the club’s new ownership.
“The team have delivered a dominant performance from start to finish,” said Cowan.
“We were disappointed to concede late, that’s me being a perfectionist. My first reaction wasn’t one for the kids, but I can’t be too hard on the players because it was a fantastic performance all round.
“I think the players deserve a huge amount of credit for their professionalism.
“It’s been an amazing week for this football club, one that will go down in its history.
“The new ownership have been an absolute class act, leaving us to get on with our jobs and taken the limelight away.
“I’ve been whinging and moaning at the players to make sure they stayed focused, which they did do. They could have got distracted by a couple of thousand extra on the gate, but they did their jobs.
“I did enjoy a little moment in the changing room. Scott (Davidson, new chairman) and Brad came in and congratulated the players. I think that was lovely for the players to hear the new ownership give their appreciation.
“For them to see what we’re capable of is pleasing. It’s onwards and upwards for us.”
Oldham have now won just one of their last seven games in all competitions after this latest defeat.
Micky Mellon’s men are three points above the dreaded trapdoor to non-league football.
The boss said: “It’s frustrating because we didn’t justify the support from the supporters who came today. They were fabulous and deserve more from us.
“You need to be stubborn, you need to be stoic and not give away that (second) goal.
“You dig in. The time that the goal came you try to get everything right defensively. You remain robust, you remain aggressive.
“You’re going to make it very difficult for yourselves to get results when you concede goals like that.
“Generally, we didn’t show enough. We were tepid up front, not aggressive enough in the middle and poor distribution at the back.
“If I could look inside our football heads then I’d be able to give an answer to why we can’t get a result at Shrewsbury after going to Northampton and winning and beating Sheffield Wednesday (in the FA Cup).”