Shrewsbury's all-action Ollie Norburn is impressing Sam Ricketts

The all-action midfielder has been a regular for Town this season under both John Askey and Ricketts, appearing 28 times in the league and scoring five goals.

Norburn, who is understood to have cost Town a record transfer fee when making the switch from Tranmere Rovers last summer, was made captain by Ricketts for last week’s FA Cup replay at Wolves.

Boss Ricketts insists Norburn is a key cog with his athletic breaking up of the play in the midfield, setting the tone for Town to ‘scrap in the right way’.

“He was excellent at Wolves. I really like the tenacious side to his game,” said Ricketts.

“There’s not many better than him at jumping and tackling, the next bit is just keeping the ball simple.

“I’m not expecting him to dribble past three or four players, but I expect him to jump, tackle and be that standard setter for the team to be a horrible team to play against.

“You run, you tackle, scrap, but in the right way. Set the tone for how the team play.”

Norburn, 26, was heavily involved in Town’s bad-tempered 1-1 draw at Bristol Rovers last weekend.

His head-to-head battle with ex-Town skipper Abu Ogogo was a flashpoint and Ricketts was left bewildered at the officials for not sending Ogogo off for a kick out at his counterpart.

Norburn was booked for the eighth time this season and avoided a second yellow card shortly after.

Ricketts brought the midfielder off shortly after half-time because he ‘could see what was coming’, but he would have ‘loved’ to keep him on.

Ricketts is aware that results take precedence over performances for relegation-threatened Town, but being ‘horrible’ to play can take various guises.

“I don’t care how we play at this moment, we have to win games,” added the boss, whose side welcome mid-table Burton this weekend.

“You want to be horrible to play against.

“It should be horrible playing against a passing team because you don’t get anywhere near the ball.

“But we have to understand where we’re at, what our strengths and weaknesses are.

“We have to be a team that knows how it’s going to play to get the results that we need.”