Ian Evatt toasted new dad Dion Charles and Wanderers’ travelling support as the striker’s late goal sparked joyous scenes at Shrewsbury.
Charles celebrated the birth of a second child – daughter Hattie – on Thursday evening.
And he was on cloud nine again when he thumped home a spectacular first goal for Wanderers two minutes from time to seal a superb 1-0 win.
“I’m delighted for him because he’s had a rough time in recent weeks and it’s great for his family that he’s got a goal for Hattie,” said Evatt, who signed Charles from Accrington Stanley earlier this month to spearhead a surge back up the League One table.
“It’s always nice when you buy a centre-forward and they come in with expectation that they get off the mark and for it to be a winning goal in the 88th-minute in front of a magnificent travelling support is great for everybody.
“It was a wonderful way to win us the game.
“It’s always great for centre-forwards and people you have signed as marquee players to get off the mark.
“They were fantastic scenes at the end with our wonderful away support.
“He’s a strong boy with good movement and good ability. He’s still a work in progress and there’s still improvement to come but we’re delighted with him and all the others.”
Wanderers made it back-to-back wins to climb to 15th in the table as they ended a seven-match losing league run on the road.
And Charles’ dramatic late strike handed the Shrews a first loss on their own ground since the end of September as Evatt’s men took another major step in the right direction ahead of next Saturday’s visit of joint leaders Sunderland.
“We needed to get that monkey off our back. We’ve not been happy with our away performances,” added the Wanderers’ boss.
“We have had some bad luck in those times, as well, but to come here where Shrewsbury are on a good unbeaten run and don’t concede many goals, for us to get that winner and to stand up to what they threw at us all game was pleasing to see.
“You have to be hard to beat, especially at places like this.
“You have to defend as a group and I thought we did that really well to give us a chance to go on and win it and it was a wonderful finish from Dion and I’m really pleased for him.
“It was a huge result. We’re still miles away from where we want to be and what we want to be but it was about stopping the rot and becoming hard to beat again and I think we’ve done that with back-to-back clean sheets.”
“Now we need to work on our in-possession stuff and add that to what looks like a solid base.”