It’s good to talk, says Shrewsbury boss Sam Ricketts

Town took a huge step towards League One safety on Saturday with a crucial 2-0 win at struggling rivals Southend.

Ricketts felt that Shrewsbury’s dressing room was quiet when he took over in December – coming after an unbeaten run of six wins from seven in all competitions.

But the boss feels his players are now becoming more ‘self-managing’, talking through tactics behind the scenes and understanding how to negotiate problems.

Ricketts said: “The spirit is very, very good after a real professional performance.

“I’m trying to help the players learn and improve. We see little bits of the Southend game come out from training.

“We need to help and educate the players and when you see them take on initiative for themselves, sorting out problems themselves – that’s the best thing for a manager.

“You’re leaning to be a self-managing team. After Southend I heard the lads talking about what they did well, what they could do better.

“Comments at half-time was us having another 20 per cent in us.

“At the end of the game they thought we still had another 10 or 15 per cent to give, which is really pleasing as well.”

Shrews are now likely to need just two wins from their final six games to secure safety.

Town were in good form under caretaker duo Danny Coyne and Eric Ramsay but Ricketts gave an honest assessment on one of the pitfalls of the squad he inherited four months ago.

“I thought we were very quiet as a team when I first came in,” he said.

“Having won, drawn and lost when we first came in it was very quiet. Now I can hear players talking among themselves and saying the correct things to each other.

“The players need to work problems out as quickly as they can rather than rely on myself at half-time after 45 minutes.”