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Interviews

Post Burton | Steve Cotterill

14 January 2023

Interviews

Post Burton | Steve Cotterill

14 January 2023

Manager Steve Cotterill described his team's performance as 'tremendous' following our thumping 4-0 win at Burton.

A brace from Christian Saydee along with a Luke Leahy penalty and a late Chey Dunkley header saw Shrewsbury run out convincing winners at the Pirelli Stadium.

Saydee - who was on loan with the Brewers last season - netted his first goal after just 21 seconds before he then went on to double our lead with an excellent finish just before half-time.

Luke then converted a spot-kick after he was fouled in the box early in the second half with Dunkley making the scoreline even more convincing in added-on time.

Chatting to the media post-match, Steve was quizzed on his team's display, Christian's early goal and the performance of Luke who shone in central midfield.

And the boss also gave a special mention to Matthew Pennington - with the defender marking his 100th appearance for the club with a clean sheet.

ON THE PERFORMANCE: 

"Four goals, a clean sheet – I'm really happy with that. 

"We got what we deserved today and we haven’t had that in recent games – Cambridge, Cheltenham and Fleetwood. 

"We didn’t deserve to lose any of those games. What happened to us over the Christmas period was really, really, tough on the group and tough on everybody at the football club. 

"We did well today. I don’t know if there will be any team that comes here and wins 4-0.  

"It’s a tough game here at Burton, it always is. It was tough years ago even when I played here. It is always tough to go to Burton Albion and get a result. 

"I thought we were well worthy of it today. We were clinical when we needed to be.

"I thought we were tremendous all over the pitch. I couldn’t really single anybody out for their performances. Saydee will get the headlines for scoring two goals – which is handy. 

"Chey Dunkley’s header at the end – he said to me after the game ‘you’ve been telling me to go there for weeks!’ So I said ‘why haven’t you been listening!’ We are delighted with that.

"And the penalty is the penalty. It was a penalty from my view and then Luke does what Luke does best. 

"It was a really tough game against a good team – they will cause plenty of upsets here for sure. 

ON SCORING INSIDE 20 SECONDS:

"We’ve done it before – we scored two minutes into a game and then found the next 88 minutes pretty difficult. 

"Today we felt that, early on, they would want to come after us. 

"Their backline they keep very high. So early on we knew we had to drop it over the back of them with composure. And we did that. 

"When we’ve dropped it over the back of them, the defender and the goalkeeper have got nervous and then when Saydee goes around the keeper you’re just hoping he hits the target and it ends up with his first goal of the game."

ON SAYDEE’S SECOND GOAL: 

"Rob Street deserves an enormous amount of credit for keeping that ball alive. He doesn’t give in Streety. 

"He is a good foil for Christian. Christian will be the first one to thank Rob Street for his work rate today. I thought he was incredible alongside Christian. 

"Christian doesn’t get that goal without Rob’s persistence."

ON LUKE’S PERFORMANCE: 

"He has got quite a bad cut on his foot. He covered every blade of grass today. And I wanted him – at the end there – to get a separate round of applause."

ON CHEY’S GOAL FROM A CORNER: 

"We do enough work on set pieces so it’s nice when it pays dividends. 

"But Chey Dunkley around that back post – what a great guy he is. What a great guy. We have got lots of them in our dressing room. 

"You only have to see at the end, he’s produced a Cruyff turn in the box – that's Chey Dunkley we are talking about having a Cruyff. 

"And when I said the other week about him improving as a player – he works every day to get better. 

"You don’t expect the first bit (the Cruyff turn) to get the corner. But the second bit (the header) you do expect. 

"And you saw with the lads – they are straight over to him when scores. He is a really popular guy in the dressing room." 

ON MATT PENNINGTON GETTING A CLEAN SHEET ON HIS 100th APPEARANCE:

"We have made up a shirt with 100 on it that I gave to Penno at the end of the game. 

"And Penno explained what a privilege it was to be in that dressing room and to be part of this club right now and that was really, really, nice. 

"Everybody today, subs included, were all in. All in, bar none."Generic-Web-Banner-Away-22-23.jpg


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