Steve Cotterill full of praise for Shrewsbury fans after Cheltenham victory

Cheltenham boss Steve Cotterill took the opportunity to thank Shrewsbury’s fans after his side’s 2-0 success at the Croud Meadow.

Goals from Jordan Thomas and Sam Sherring secured the Robins a first away success of 2026 and extended their unbeaten run to seven games.

It was Cotterill’s first return to the home of the Shrews since leaving at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.

He went through a major health battle during his reign in Shropshire after contracting Covid and remains grateful for the support he was given, completing a full lap of the pitch after the final whistle to show his appreciation.

“The supporters here will always be special to me,” he said.

“Coming back here, I will always have a place for the Shrewsbury Town fans in my heart because of how they were to me at a really critical time in my life.

“They will know more about what went on than the Cheltenham fans will know and I will never forget them for the support they gave me.

“They were incredible and still have given it to me after I’ve left.

“They boys were magnificent today and we deserved the win.”

Cheltenham opened the scoring in the 63rd minute when Josh Davison nodded the ball into Thomas’s path and he found the bottom-right corner from outside the penalty area.

The win was sealed when Sherring stroked in Luke Young’s corner with a neat low finish in the 71st minute, lifting Cheltenham above Shrewsbury and into 17th place.

Shrews boss Gavin Cowan admitted his side’s levels dipped after their recent fine run of form.

“Obviously, I am really disappointed with the result,” he said.

“For the first time in a long time, our performance probably wasn’t where it wanted to be.

“We know we need to be better at our fundamentals, which is disappointing because the players know they need to be accountable.

“First half we had the better chances and we felt like we needed to get an early goal because they are very cute at managing the momentum of the game.

“We needed strong officials and we didn’t have that today. Pretty inept from them.

“But the result was right and how it should have been, so I can’t complain about that.”