Steve Cotterill hails ‘outstanding’ display as Shrewsbury hold leaders Rotherham

Posted Wednesday, March 02, 2022 by PA

Steve Cotterill was full of praise for his Shrewsbury side who forced league leaders Rotherham to cling onto a goalless draw at Montgomery Waters Meadow.

After an even first half, Salop unleashed a barrage on Josh Vickers’ goal including George Nurse’s 30-yard piledriver that cannoned off the inside of the post before Vickers smothered Matthew Pennington’s rebound.

“On another night, I know it’s the one of taking your chances, but I thought in the second half we were outstanding tonight, playing against the best team in the league,” said Cotterill.

“You don’t get to be however many points clear they are without doing something right so good luck to them, they battled hard for a point tonight but I thought our lads were outstanding.

“I think if you look at Nurse’s shot and the goalkeeper, who was absolutely outstanding for them tonight, made three or four great saves, he was probably the best player on the pitch because he was the one who had the biggest effect on the game tonight.

“I’m really pleased with our lads, just so disappointed that they haven’t got the points they deserve. We’ve got to move on quickly because we’ll probably get three points in another game between now and the end of the season where we haven’t deserved three points.”

The Shrewsbury boss lauded Warne’s Rotherham side, who sit seven points clear at the summit of League One after a sixth consecutive clean sheet away from home.

Cotterill added: “I like Rotherham, I like what they’re about, I like their manager, I like their coaching staff, I like their players. I said at the start of the season that I hope they go on and win the league, I thought they’d be up there in those top two and they’ve proved it.“

Millers manager Warne admitted his side felt like they were devoid of confidence after making five changes from the 1-0 win over Plymouth on Saturday.

“The lads didn’t feel they played with enough confidence,” said Warne. “Which is odd because they’re top of the league, but credit to Shrewsbury, they gave us no time on the ball and I don’t know if it reverberated around the team that they didn’t want to be the one making the mistake.

“From our performance I thought it was a good point earned, I thought we were the better side in the first half considerably and should have taken a couple of chances.

“I don’t think we were at our flamboyant best but we could have gone in two or three up comfortably, but then in the second half Shrewsbury were in the ascendancy virtually the whole 45 minutes – we even considered changing shape which we haven’t done all season but they put it on us and they deserved at least one goal second half.

“It was always going to be a tough game against Steve’s team and they were definitely up for it, we’re top of the league and people are going to hunt us down and I made changes because of the state of the players.”