Comment: Sam Ricketts can steal a march by securing Shrewsbury early survival

Salop do not need the busy relegation minefield to include them for any longer than necessary.

All the clubs in the mire will hope for the same, but Town have showed in recent weeks that they have the quality to get one over any side in this division.

They have more than enough to get out trouble, especially given the extremely tight nature of the bottom half of the division, where you could throw a blanket over the clubs treading water.

Supporters are worried about their own heart-rate, understandably, and do not fancy chewing on their fingernails when it gets down to the final half-a-dozen games.

There are 11 games – and just under two months – left of the season before today’s trip to bottom four strugglers and managerless Rochdale.

What a huge boost it would be if Sam Ricketts’ team can ride the wave of their recent improvement and put the season to bed in the next couple of weeks.

Unlikely? Perhaps, but Town face 22nd, 14th and 12th in the next seven days. Three wins would put them on 49 points and they’d be almost there.

Cynics – or realists – would suggest that Town won’t win all three fixtures. Five, six or seven points would be good returns.

But, still being realistic, Shrewsbury could have League One safety (usually sealed around the 50-point mark) sealed by the end of this month.

Now that wouldn’t be a boost in the form of early holidays, so Town players and staff could be ‘on the beach’ – metaphorically – by April.

Instead, it would allow the boss ideal early preparation and planning for next season.

Ricketts knows that safety is the prior concern. First and foremost he must get that sorted. It has been the task at hand since the turn of the year and Town have been heading in the right direction for the last month.

The job is not yet complete, however, the Town chief will have half an eye on his summer plans and beyond.

He will have begun drawing up lists of transfer targets, styles of play and the way he sees Town run from top to bottom.

It would be a significant advantage, a positive head-start, for Ricketts’ Salop to begin plotting for their 2019/20 fortunes.

It would mean there is nothing on the line for the last five, six, seven, eight or however many games this term, but that is a far more appealing option than fearing the drop.

I’m pretty sure most, if not all, Town fans would take the unexciting comfort of mid-table as January slumped into February and Shrews were 10 league games without a win.

From May, Ricketts will be working in just his second summer in management. His first, with Wrexham in the National League last year, was his debut role.

It would be a big boost to the boss if he could steal a march on all of his counterparts at the wrong end of League One as they continue to fret about what division their employers will be in next season – or indeed whether relegation would mean the sack.

Ricketts will be aware he has a pretty large job on his hands this summer if, as expected, Town avoid the drop.

First there are the out-of-contract players, and there are a few, Mat Sadler, Shaun Whalley and Anthony Grant, all big figures for the club.

Then there’s the general turnover. Town fans have become accustomed to that and it is likely to continue this summer as Ricketts goes about putting his true stamp on his job. Then there are loans to sort.

The boss knows he will be truly judged from August onward and he knows he needs to get it right. A head-start this season will help.