'He should have seen it through!' Watch 'gutted' Shrewsbury Town fans react to manager Gareth Ainsworth's shock departure

Normally when a club is rock-bottom in the league and the manager leaves, fans are saying “good riddance”.

But, despite a string of dreadful results on the pitch, the long-haired northerner’s motivational interviews, wins against Birmingham City and Wrexham, and the fact people would see him out and about in Shrewsbury made him an incredibly popular figure.

We went into Shrewsbury town centre to gauge reaction from supporters, ask about their interactions with Ainsworth and what might be next for Salop.

Shaun Owen, who runs The 12th Man retro football shirt shop in The Parade Shopping Centre, was “absolutely shocked” to hear the manager was on his way to Gillingham, and described him as “a top fella” after he visited the shop.

“There are very few things in football that completely take your breath away, but about 10.30am today I started seeing weird stuff on Sky Sports,” he said.

“Our man’s gone. It throws up so many questions. What’s happening with the takeover being the big one. How he could be so bought into something and then literally within a day - because there was a big, long interview with [Richard] Dobson, [Ainsworth’s assistant]. You don’t really get your assistant manager out front and centre if you’re not going to be at the club for a long time.”

Such was Ainsworth’s popularity, the club got him to front the campaign to sell season tickets for next season - something which has never happened. He was also interviewed about his life and career in “An Evening With” at the stadium recently. 

“The club have put everything on Ainsworth,” said Shaun, who felt using Ainsworth as “the messiah” was unwise of the club.

“Don’t hang everything on one guy,” he said. “They made Gareth Ainsworth the messiah. But then when something like this happens, you have all the eggs in that basket and now they’ve been smashed.”