Sam Ricketts: We’ll learn lessons from Fleetwood defeat
Sam Ricketts insists Shrewsbury will work to ensure they don’t suffer from a lack of belief again after the deflating 3-0 home reverse to Fleetwood.
The hosts dominated the first half an hour against the Cod Army, but came unstuck as the visitors netted with their first attack and drained confidence and rhythm from Ricketts’ side.
Shrewsbury could not find any recovery from then on and failed to respond in the second half as Joey Barton’s side added two more goals, while Town – who lost at home in League One for the first time this season – did not have an effort on goal until added time.
“ A few players spoke after the game and we have to understand why that happened because we don’t want it to happen again,” said Ricketts in an attempt to explain his side’s lack of reaction after falling behind.
“We want to learn from it. I think there’s a few things to take out from it, but ultimately the biggest one is we need to be a team that are flat out at it all game.
“And when we’re carrying niggles like we have been all week that’s one of the biggest reasons why we probably just faded and lost that cutting edge and belief that we could get back in it.”
Callum Lang inadvertently turned into his own net after Jimmy Dunne had headed against the bar to open the scoring, before Josh Morris scrambled in 10 minutes after the break.
Sub Paddy Madden netted a fine volley with 10 minutes left, but Shrewsbury – who dominated and created chances early on – had not recovered from falling behind to the game’s opening goal. “You have to understand the second half and why that happened. But we have to take an awful lot of positives out the first 30 minutes or so and understand what was good about that,” Ricketts added.
“You reflect on both and learn from both. Why didn’t we score in the first bit (of the game)?
“Was it the final effort not hitting the target? It was probably that more than anything. I remember some headers from set-pieces, two really good chances and we didn’t score either.
“They get one chance off a set-piece and score – and that really swung the game.”
Ricketts felt referee Kevin Johnson was ‘manipulated’ by Fleetwood’s tactics but still had praise for the visitors adding: “They’re a good team and managed the game incredibly well. But I think we showed in the first half hour that we are a good team, but we didn’t score.”
