Shrewsbury Town boss Steve Cotterill spoke to the media after tonight’s fantastic win over Morecambe.
Town thrashed their Lancashire opponents by five goals to nil at Montgomery Waters Meadow. A brace each for Dan Udoh and Luke Leahy was finished off by a header from Ryan Bowman as Salop secured their biggest win of the season.
The manager discussed the game and was full of praise for his team and each of the goal scorers.
On the game:
“I’m pleased for the lads really because like you said, we played in a game at the weekend and deserved to win it against a good team. Morecambe beat us earlier in the season and it wasn’t a particularly good performance from us then and we needed to put that right. We’ve come a long way since we were beaten 2-0 by them so I’m really pleased for the lads tonight.
“When you talk about performance it’s different because everybody gets clouded by results, so I couldn’t say tonight was that much better because five goals went in. Obviously, it’s a good win but a win is a win if that makes sense, I would say that somewhere during the season we’ve played equally as well and the chances haven’t gone in or they’ve been blocked or the goalkeeper has made saves and especially in the second half, their goalkeeper ends up being Man of the Match - which has happened a few times this season.”
On Dan Udoh:
“I talk to Dan a lot about his finishing and how he perhaps should go about his goals and Ryan [Bowman] also and tonight, that second one was what I would want him to do. On the first one, I think what will get lost is that Dan Udoh ended up winning the ball back off [Toumani] Diagouraga on the halfway line, and the next time he touches it is when he put it in the back of the net. There was a fair bit that had to happen in between, but it was important that he nicked that ball back and was strong and then got a nice composed pass off for us to be able to build and for him to get that tap in.
“I like his second goal just because I like the turn and I like the strike. When I came in, I found that Dan always wanted to find the corners but he doesn’t need to find the corners when he’s got the power he has. He would miss the target a lot but he hits the target a lot more now and when he puts that power behind it, there’s not a goalkeeper around who saves that, no matter what league you’re in.”
On Luke Leahy:
“It was a couple of great finishes by Luke but we know he’s got that in him so we’re obviously pleased for him – it adds to his goal tally – so all in all, we’re delighted with the goals and who scored them. It would’ve been nice if there had been another for one of the lads who hadn’t scored yet but there are still eight games to go and hopefully they can chip in.”
On Ryan Bowman:
“Brilliant header; I’m pleased for him. Like I said before, they [the strikers] can’t score all the time but hopefully, these couple of moments have given them the chance to go on and increase their tally in the remaining games.”
