Sam Ricketts impressed by Shrews’ display

Posted Wednesday, February 27, 2019 by PA

Sam Ricketts was impressed with the performance of his Shrewsbury side as they moved five points clear of the League One relegation zone with a 2-0 win over play-off contenders Doncaster.

Josh Laurent and Tyrese Campbell, scoring for the third successive game, struck in the first half as the Shrews climbed to 17th in the table.

“Obviously I’m delighted with the win, really pleased,” said boss Ricketts.

“Back-to-back wins is really good. It comes on the back of getting some really good time with the players on the training ground and, especially first-half tonight, I thought we were excellent.

“It’s the best half of football we’ve played since I’ve been here. We’ve played really well without the ball but we actually played really well with the ball first half.

“I thought we pressed them really high up, we were winning a lot of balls high up and scored two, could have scored three or four, so that was really, really pleasing.

“You’re starting to see elements of how I want to play, how I want to play regularly, so that was the most pleasing thing, as well as obviously the win.”

Laurent found the corner of the net from the edge of the penalty area to give Shrewsbury an 18th-minute lead before Campbell, on loan from Stoke, doubled the advantage with a cool finish.

As for Shrewsbury’s improved position in the league table, Ricketts added: “I’ve just had a quick look now. Far rosier, certainly a long way to go, but far rosier and the most pleasing thing is we’ve worked really, really hard to see aspects of the game improving.”

Doncaster boss Grant McCann admitted his team were poor in the first half but he was happier with their second-half display.

They pushed forward and created a number of good chances without managing to find the net.

“We were disappointing,” said McCann, whose side remain sixth in the table. “We started the game very, very poorly. To be honest, we were poor for the 45 minutes. We didn’t get to grips with our plan.

“We almost followed the second-half performance from Scunthorpe (last weekend) onto today, which was disappointing really and we were really frustrated.”

But McCann added: “Second half, I thought we were outstanding.

“I think that’s the way we know we can play. Chance after chance after chance. Yes, the ball didn’t go in the net, but I’ll never have a go at my players for missing a chance. They’ve got to be in that area.

“We’ve got to realise now that every game’s going to be a fight, it’s going to be tough.”