THE DUNN THING
Stuart Dunn covers Town’s fortunes for BBC Radio Shropshire and the Shrewsbury Chronicle
SINCE writing my first column for the Shrewsbury Town matchday programme 21 years ago - now that does make me feel old! - I've long since lost count of the number of
Town players I've interviewed.
At a rough guess, though, given the rapid turn over of lower league clubs playing squads these days, it has to be upwards of 300 players.
I remember very clearly that Dick Pratley was the first
Town man I threw some questions at for a captain's column we were going to write together on his behalf. But when he got injured a couple of games into the 1989- 90 season, I suddenly found myself chatting to a certain David Moyes every other week to gather his thoughts for his skipper's column which was used on these very pages long before Ian Whitfield arrived to become Town's award- winning programme editor.
Who could ever have predicted that Glaswegian central defender Moyes, who was always extremely helpful and obliging when it came to assisting a young wet behind the ears reporter (I was only 16 at the time), would go onto become such a household name as Everton boss? I well remember in his last column that season how he told me was travelling by car, I seem to recall, to the Italia 90 World Cup that summer to support his beloved Scotland. Now just look at him as one of the Premier League's longest- serving managers! Some players make more of a mark on you than others with their honesty when you talk to them on a fairly regular basis and one of those men, Graham Coughlan, who always struck me as refreshingly honest, was back at the Greenhous Meadow on Saturday. True to form, the likeable Irishman, who turned 36 last
Thursday, was as approachable as ever when I asked him to spare a few minutes for a Radio Shropshire interview as he was about to head back up the tunnel after warming down with his Southend United team mates. And again, as always, he pulled no punches as he reflected on Southend's efforts in picking up a point thanks to Anthony Grant's
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86th minute volley and also cast a wistful look back on his two seasons as Town captain before being released in May.
Richard Pratley was Stuart’s first interviewee.
"Anybody who knows me will know I would probably have liked to win, but over the course of the game a draw was maybe a fair result," said Coughlan, who was particularly impressed with the state of the Meadow pitch
which was relaid last summer.
Coughlan, who received a warm welcome from Town fans appreciative of his efforts in his two years as a Shrewsbury player, admitted he remained disappointed at not being able to help the club achieve their goal of League One football.
"I would have liked to have seen them out of this division when I was here," he confirmed. "I felt we had enough about us to get out of it so that's obviously something that rankles with me and I'm not best pleased we didn't do that.
"It's over to the new management team now, a new crop of players, and we'll see where they can take the club. It's all geared up, it's all set up, and this is one of the best clubs in Leagues One and Two. There's not many clubs like this."
Coughlan, pleased with his performance after being handed a recall by Southend boss Paul Sturrock, added: "I lost a little bit of form last season. I was poor and I let everything that was going on around and about me affect my own personal performances and that maybe had a reflection on the team.
"I'm just happy to find a little bit of form. I don't become a bad player overnight. I maybe come an older player and a slower player, but not a bad player. I'm just happy we came away with something as I would have been disappointed if we had lost."
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