Upbeat skipper Graham Coughlan has set his sights on automatic promotion ahead of Shrewsbury Town’s revenge bid against derby rivals Hereford United at the Prostar on Saturday.
The experienced Irish defender has played a key role in Town keeping two clean sheets in back-to-back wins over Macclesfield and Barnet which have rocketed Shrewsbury back into
League Two’s top five. And, under no illusions what a big month February promises to be in
Town’s season, he has urged his team-mates to push for a top three spot and try and avoid the play-offs if possible.
“We’ve given ourselves a chance,” said Coughlan. “It’s a hell of a month for us and we’ll be able to sit down and talk about it after the Bournemouth game at the end of February because the next few games will be pivotal.
“The run of games we’re in now, Macclesfield, Barnet and Hereford, it’s vitally important to get nine points, ahead of what you can call the big three against Bury, Rotherham and Bournemouth.
“There’s a long, long way to go and there are a few twists and turns yet, but we need to improve on our second half performance against Barnet.
“But we’re in there fighting and I just hope we avoid Wembley, the play-offs, because that’s still a big sore point from last year. We want automatic (promotion).”
Coughlan admitted Town failed to do themselves justice when they lost 2-1 at Hereford in November, and believes the memory of that night should serve as extra motivation.
“This was always going to be a week where we could get ourselves in a right good position,” he added. “We’ve done two and we need to get the third win on Saturday.
“We’ve got to be bang at it and right up for it on Saturday. A derby’s a derby. The biggest derby in the world for me is Celtic v Rangers, but whether it’s Shrewsbury v Hereford it doesn’t really matter as it’s a derby game and you want to win it.
“It’s about maintaining that confidence and that winning feeling about the club. We let ourselves down really badly when we went to Hereford and that should be first and foremost in our mind.
“We performed poorly so we owe the supporters and we want to put that right.” Coughlan reserved a special mention for former Sundorne School pupil Steven Leslie who has made such an eye catching contribution with fine goals in the last two wins.
“Technically, he’s one of the best players at the club, he’s certainly in the top two or three for me,” added the skipper.
“He just needs that consistency. It’s hard to get it being a young lad but it will come as he gets older. He’ll be a big player for us for the next 17 games.”
Boss Paul Simpson, meanwhile, remains keen to bring in reinforcements now the loan window has re-opened, but refused to be drawn on growing speculation linking Town with a move for Norwich striker Jamie Cureton.
“There’s one thing we’ve got on the go that’s a little bit complicated but we’re waiting to see if we can do something there,” said Simpson. “Hopefully over the next couple of days that might happen but there’s not going to be a massive amount of movement.”
By Stuart Dunn
