Shrewsbury boss Sam Ricketts says conceding late on was ‘bitterly disappointing’

Posted Sunday, December 16, 2018 by PA

Shrewsbury manager Sam Ricketts was disappointed after seeing his side pegged back by a late Peterborough equaliser as the points where shared in a 2-2 draw.

Goals from Greg Docherty and top scorer Fejiri Okenabirhie looked set to make it a winning first home league game in charge for Ricketts.

But Posh twice pulled level, with Matt Godden’s first for the visitors followed by a stoppage-time equaliser from Rhys Bennett after Shrewsbury were unable to clear a corner.

“It should have been three really,” said Ricketts, reflecting on having to settle for a point.

“To concede in injury time is obviously bitterly disappointing. The way of the goal as well, even more so, we switched off quickly from a corner.

“Was it a corner? Highly, highly debatable whether it even was a corner in the first place.

“But we can’t waste time arguing with the referee. We need to deal with the game.

“If he’s given a corner then we need to react to that, stop the short one, the ball coming in, our first contact needs to be better to get the ball back out the box and then we win the game.

“Really disappointed, but overall I think if you probably look at it, it’s a good point against a side who are one of the best in the league.”

Docherty fired Shrewsbury into a second-minute lead. Godden quickly pulled Posh level, but the hosts regained the advantage just before the hour when Okenabirhie rounded goalkeeper Aaron Chapman to score his 10th goal of the season from a tight angle.

“One of the best finishes I think you’ll see,” said Ricketts. “From the angle he was at, I was looking to see who was in the box, who could he square it to.

“Fair play to him, he’s guided it through the eye of a needle into the corner, so it shows the quality that Fey has.”

But Peterborough kept going and ensured they headed home with some reward thanks to defender Bennett’s late leveller.

Steve Evans, the Posh boss, hailed his team’s character: “When you see character in a side, you’re 2-1 down, it’s blowing a bit of a gale, it’s windy, it’s wet.

“You can feel sorry for yourself or you can take it to the death and we’ve got big characters in that dressing room.

“We’ve got the equaliser and we’ve got a point, and we go away very disappointed by the nature of the two goals that we concede.”

Peterborough went to extra time before knocking Bradford out of the FA Cup in midweek and Evans felt fatigue played a part at times, particularly early on.

He added: “I think fatigue certainly played a part in the first 10, 15 minutes of the game because we’ve been trying to recover them.

“It’s not just the extra time at Bradford, but it was the long trip back from Exeter the week before and a difficult game against Oxford.”