Greg Docherty is on loan at League One outfit Shrewsbury Town from Steven Gerrard’s Glasgow Rangers.
Shrewsbury Town legend Bernard McNally has been left baffled by the club’s decision to drop Rangers loanee Greg Docherty to the bench in recent matches, as reported by the Shropshire Star.
The 22-year-old midfielder is currently on loan at the League One outfit from Rangers, having failed to win over Steven Gerrard in pre-season.
But, while Docherty never really lived up to expectations at Ibrox following his £675,000 move from Hamilton in January 2018 (Scotsman), he has been a revelation south of the border.
He has scored nine goals in Shrewsbury colours while providing a further 10 assists.
Despite this impressive tally, however, Docherty has played just 15 minutes of the Shrews’ last two league games against Plymouth Argyle and Wycombe Wanderers respectively with manager Sam Ricketts dropping him to the bench.
And this has left McNally, a former player and coach of the relegation-threatened Shropshire outfit, baffled.
“We have got eight games left and I really think we need to field our strongest team in all of them – now isn’t the time to rotate. And that means having Rangers loanee Docherty in from the start,” McNally said.
“That is how I feel and how the supporters are feeling.
“He is a match-winner and we are going to need all the match-winners we can get because we now face a very tough game against Portsmouth on Saturday.”
Docherty was instrumental off the bench as Shrewsbury scored two late goals to beat Wycombe last time out, setting up Omar Beckles’ equaliser with a terrific free-kick.
That is the sort of game-changing ability that he has demonstrated all season at the New Meadow and McNally believes justifies his claim for a starting place.
“Docherty showed his class there,” he said. “And that just underlined he is a key player for us.”
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
