Cowan turning water into Salop wine

The events of the past two weeks have put a spring in my step. With four glorious victories in a row, Shrewsbury Town are a team reborn under Gavin Cowan. Suddenly, going to football is fun once again, and life is just that little bit brighter.

In trying to make sense of it all, I find myself looking to history to see when we have previously enjoyed such a reversal of fortunes. I had to dig a long way back in my memory banks: allow me to transport you briefly to the spring of 1991.

On the morning of 20 April that year, Shrewsbury sat third bottom of the Third Division (now League 1), six points from safety with just seven games to go. A second relegation in three seasons looked inevitable.

That afternoon, Town would beat near neighbours Chester City 1-0. It proved the catalyst for a remarkable run of six wins in the last seven games. We finished 18^th, securing safety with a game to spare. We even went on to ruin the play-off hopes of Bournemouth – then under leadership of up-and-coming boss Harry Redknapp – with a 3-1 win on the final day.

I was just a young teenager back in those days of a white home kit and a muddy Gay Meadow pitch. Exuberant Town boss John Bond was a very different animal to Cowan, but much else was so very similar. Certainly the sense of elation I felt, coupled with relief. The 49-year-old version of myself is much better equipped to handle footballing disappointment (and I’ve had a fair few opportunities to get used to it in the intervening years) but I confess the prospect of demotion to the National League was haunting me. We’re not safe just yet of course, but we’ve shovelled a hell of a lot of soil back into the grave we had been digging.

What I like most about Cowan is that what he promises, he delivers. He is the Ronseal of football managers: doing exactly what it says on the tin. He told us we’d be defensively more resilient. He ticked that box from day one. He told us that developing attacking play would take more time, and we have indeed seen it evolve game by game. He talks of “game strategies” – and we have seen him consistently outwit his opposite number to win games where outsiders would not have given us much of a prayer.

He was brought in with less than a week left of the January transfer window, so he had little choice but to work with what he had. As we approach Easter, it seems fitting to say that he has got these players to rise from the dead. He has truly turned water into Salopian wine.

Luca Hoole, Taylor Perry and Tom Sang are just three who have been pivotal to this winning run and are almost unrecognisable from the players they were just a couple of short weeks ago. Josh Ruffels was already a key player, but has gone to another level since being moved into a new-look back three. And that defensive unit has been expertly marshalled by Will Boyle, who is now looking like the defender we hoped we’d signed back in the summer.

I wonder if former boss Michael Appleton feels any discomfort, as he sees the squad he built improving so quickly. Yet I also feel he deserves some credit for the additions he made in his final weeks in the role. Two in particular – goalkeeper Matt Cox and striker Iwan Morgan – have been absolutely pivotal to our recent successes.

As football fans, we are of course greedy. Four in a row is fantastic, but we always want more. Can we make it five at Salford tomorrow, or six at home to Walsall on Saturday, to match the winning run of Steve Cotterill’s team back in 2023? Do that, and we’d suddenly have our sights on the club’s all-time record of seven straight league wins, which was set in the 1995/96 campaign.

Beyond this current winning run, I can’t help but wonder where we can go next season. Even with no imminent prospect of a takeover and the additional investment we all know the club needs, can Gavin Cowan possibly get us fighting at the right end of the table as part of the promotion picture?

He's already demonstrated he can clearly coach players, as evidenced by the obvious improvement we have seen in so many of our squad. H’s also shown he is tactically astute with the way he has set us up to go out and get results against in-form teams at the very top end of the table.

In the summer, though, he will also have to show that he can excel at arguably the most important part of the job: recruitment. Managers live and die by their players, and the summer will be Cowan’s opportunity to shape the squad in his image. He’s got plenty of players who will be out of contract, so the chance is there for him to shuffle his pack extensively. But with a playing and managerial career largely in the non-League game, does he have the experience and the contacts to do the job effectively? Is this where the vastly experienced Dave Edwards can add even more value, with his contacts at the top of the game? Time will tell.

In Kevin Berkoe, he has already brought in one player who has clearly made us better. He knew Berkoe from a previous role, however, and, given the levels he’s previously managed at, you can’t imagine there are too many former players he will look to sign for a League 2 side.

I also temper my excitement with the lessons of history. That incredible Great Escape back in 1991 led many, myself included, to believe that we would go on to challenge the following season. Sadly, the need to balance the books was prioritised and key players were sold – Mick Heathcote, Tony Kelly, and Mickey Brown all departed and we simply couldn’t replace such quality.

In the next transfer window, as well as replacing our pivotal loan players, we also need to ensure we don’t lose those few gems we can call upon. Players like Hoole and Perry are young enough that there is room for further development, but both are out of contract this summer. Will their current form see them picked off by clubs with deeper pockets, or will our hierarchy dig deep enough into their own coffers to table the kind of offers that give us a chance to build?

These are questions for another day, however. For now, I plan to cast reason or rationality to one side, and just enjoy the moment.

At Accrington on Saturday, my son and I were part of an exuberant away support singing “three points again, three points again, olé, olé!” throughout the closing stages. It’s a refrain I hope to hear plenty more times yet before this season ends.