Bernard McNally: Sam Ricketts' tactical tweak could be the answer for Shrewsbury Town
If somebody last Friday had offered me a 1-0 win and three points against Sunderland I’d have signed for it in blood.
I think it’s important for me to state that, sadly, I was double-booked for this of all matches and was following from afar through text updates from the Star’s reporter Lewis.
But maybe I should stay away! That is some victory for Town.
I thought it was a bold move by Sam Ricketts to have us lined up in a more 3-4-3 formation, albeit with the security of the players dropping back out of possession.
Last week I suggested he may have to change the shape and I was also so pleased to see Shaun Whalley back involved from the start. It sounded like the role he and Dave Edwards played in support of Jason Cummings worked well.
Having watched it back, what a finish it was from Jason. He brings that touch of class. He will be a very, very good buy for Town.
Everybody else, myself included back in the day, would try to get up there and smash the skin off the ball and fire over. But the good players are cool, calm and collected; they find the corner.
It was nice to see Josh Laurent delivering a good assist. That will do him good because there’s more to come there.
Sam was able to keep the solid defensive shape while altering it further forward and it clearly worked.
To beat a Sunderland side off the back of a 5-0 victory is a tremendous effort. It was a big result for the club as a whole – supporters included.
Credit to Sam to look at using a 3-4-3, that can be a potent force when it works and the lads that came in also brought experience to the party, which is a boost.
It was a nice occasion for the fans, despite the nervy moments before the end. They’ve been wanting more and the manager delivered with a great result.
Sometimes in football you can tweak something slightly and it can bear a lot of fruit for you. I’m hoping this will happen for us.
It’s on to Wycombe next on Saturday and what a season they are having. Are we the underdogs there? Shrewsbury would rather have it that way.
But we should have gained so much confidence as a squad from what happened against Sunderland.
It should be two sides with their tails up and confidence high. It’s a tough one to predict the outcome of but we can go and aim for at least a point.
Wycombe brings back bad memories for me, I lost to them in the FA Cup with West Brom. A good result would be another step forward for us.
