Sam Ricketts happy with Shrewsbury’s performance in draw against Oxford

Posted Sunday, December 08, 2019 by PA

Shrewsbury manager Sam Ricketts said he thought the goalless draw was the least his team deserved from their game at promotion-chasing Oxford.

The draw made it just one defeat in seven for the Shrews.

“I thought we were well worth a point today,” said the former Wales international, who began his playing career at Oxford.

“In the first half we were by far the better team. We started the game really well and we were outstanding in the first half.

“We were the ones pressing and you could hear the home fans grumbling, which is always a sign that the away team are doing things well.

“In the second half we were expecting to have to dig in, and we did that.

“I’m delighted with the performance and happy with the point.

“We negated them an awful lot and our keeper didn’t have a shot to save until late on.”

Shrewsbury may rue not taking their chances in the opening period, when Dave Edwards had two efforts saved by Oxford’s new keeper Jordan Archer, and James Henry cleared off the line from Aaron Pierre.

Injury-hit Oxford extended their unbeaten league run to 11 games but they took a long while to get a grip on play before going on to control the second half.

U’s boss Karl Robinson said: “I’m bamboozled that their camp think they were the better team.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for them, yet to me, we struggled for the first 15 minutes but for the whole of the second half it was us – it was like a bombardment.

“In all my career I’ve never been so proud of a point. We’ve got 10 players that were out injured and a referee today that was very poor.

“To put in a performance like that, and after we’d played on Wednesday night as well when Shrewsbury played on Tuesday, was fantastic.

“At half-time I said to my wide players to be a little more aggressive and we changed our system to three at the back which made us better.”

Robinson’s big worry was further injuries to midfielders Anthony Forde and Henry, with Forde taken by ambulance to the John Radcliffe Hospital.

“Fordey was rushed to hospital with a couple of suspected broken ribs because he couldn’t breathe, so obviously we wish him all the best,” Robinson said. “But we know he’s in very good hands.”