Sam Ricketts: We achieved Shrewsbury's second best finish for 25 years

Ricketts took over at the Montgomery Waters Meadow from John Askey and guided the club to safety - before leading Salop to a 16th placed finish on a points per game basis as the league was curtailed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the 2020/21 season didn't go as planned and after winning just nine points from 13 games he was sacked and replaced by Steve Cotterill.

Ricketts, who had a successful four month spell with Wrexham before joining Salop, was speaking this week to the Dragons' fanzine podcast, Fearless in Devotion, about his time at the Racecourse and controversial exit to Shrewsbury.

And on his stint in Shropshire, Ricketts admitted it was a tough role at times - adding the Salop fans never quite understood he led them to their second highest finish in 25 years.

He said: "It was a tough role that one. The club had an outstanding year the previous year before I joined, they finished third and made it to Wembley.

"In my first year we stayed up, that was all we could do.

"The second season was cut short by Covid, and in effect we finished 16th which was the second best finish for 25 years.

"I didn't go to the club to finish 16th. I didn't regard it as success but if you looked at the history it is the second best finish for 25 years, so it was not too bad, but they (the fans) never quite got that bit."

Going into more detail on his time at the Montgomery Waters Meadow, Ricketts insisted it was more difficult to attract players to Salop than it was to National League Wrexham - although he did reveal he came close to signing a number of top level League One players.

He added: "At Wrexham I would ring up and try to sign a player, and say it was Sam from Wrexham and straight away the player would be interested.

"With Shrewsbury, with the calibre of player we went for it was never the phone call they had been waiting for, and it became very hard to attract players there.

"We got very, very close to signing players who had won League One a number of times, but we just couldn't afford that extra little bit.

"We were good in games, but we just couldn't get wins at the end and then the club had a decision to make after 12 or so games and that is how football goes."

The former Wolves defender also revealed that he has spoken with a number of clubs about returning to management but nothing has materialised - so, last summer he decided to open a builders merchants and step away from the game for the time being.

He added: "A company near to me was closing down so I took it over and re-opened it as a builders merchants.

"I love football and I am not saying I won't manage again but I always wanted to do something different, because all I've done since I was 15 was football.

"I've done very little in terms of football since leaving Shrewsbury, as the company takes up all my time. I've been asked to go and scout some games, and done Wolves TV, but I get my kicks from watching at the moment.

"There is a lot of pressure on managers and it is a lot easier looking from afar."