Friedel involvement can only help Shrewsbury - Cowan

Shrewsbury Town head coach Gavin Cowan has welcomed the arrival of new sporting director Brad Friedel, saying he only wishes it had happened sooner.

Just 10 months ago, when Cowan was appointed, Town were two points off the bottom and in relegation trouble.

When they host Micky Mellon's Oldham Athletic in the new American owners' first game in charge on Saturday, they are just two points off a play-off place - and only four points off third. They may stand 15th in League Two, but it is a very congested table.

"It's just about carrying on doing what we're doing," Cowan told BBC Radio Shropshire. "It's an incredible moment in the club's history and I'm just glad to be a part of it. I'm as excited as anyone.

"Anything to move the club forward and help us win games has got to be a positive. For Brad to be around the place offering stuff can only be good. As long as I have full autonomy over the team it'll be great.

"We did a great job recruiting in the summer but this changes the buffer. The timing is perfect for Brad to be around. Who wouldn't want that?"

"I don't see why this club shouldn't be in the Championship," new Shrewsbury chairman Scott Davidson told BBC Radio Shropshire.

"The only reason I wouldn't say we could go higher is I'm not willing to mortgage the club's future for the present.

"We can build intelligently. Our team, our data, our process will lead to rapid improvement. If we're right, we'll be able to move relatively quickly.

"We will be successful and we'll get to League One and we will get to the Championship - and we will do it in a way that you'll all be proud of."

It is very much to his personal regret as he watches Shrewsbury for the first time this weekend as a former owner that Roland Wycherley is handing over his lifelong love as a League Two club - and not still in the third tier, which is where they were when he took over in 1996 and where they still were when he announced his intention to sell in 2020.

In those 30 years, Town suffered downs as well as ups. And, at a club of their comparatively limited resources, did well to enjoy a 10-year tenure of English football's third tier - largely down to the steady hand Wycherley kept on the financial tiller.

Shrewsbury fans may have looked covetously at Welsh border rivals Wrexham and how they were transformed by transatlantic investment.

But in that time, two more of their Marches border rivals, Chester City (2010) and Hereford United (2014), were wound up in the High Court, and it was at moments like that when Town fans should have been sleeping soundly knowing their club were in the safe hands of someone who cares.

After stepping up from his role as vice-chairman when previous Town chairman Ray Bailey stepped down in the summer of 1996, Wycherley suffered relegation to the fourth tier in his first season, then relegation from the Football League in 2004.

They were back up within a year under Jimmy Quinn, before Wycherley became the driving force behind leaving their quirky but flood-ravaged old Gay Meadow home on the banks of the River Severn in 2007 to move to a new 10,000-seater stadium on the edge of town at Meole Brace - and a boom in home attendances.

They regained their place in the third tier under Graham Turner in 2012, then again under Mellon in 2015. But for a side that only first entered the Football League in 1950, they are still judged by fans who hark back to the decade they spent in Division Two (1979 to 1989), under Turner and Chic Bates.

They so nearly got back there in 2018 - third under Paul Hurst, only to fail in the Wembley play-off final.

Now, after a frustrating time as Wycherley suffered too many time-wasters, the American revolution is here - and it is time to get the motor running and head out on the highway.