Shrewsbury verdict: Jeers then cheers – but a priceless win

Points and wins are all that are required at this late stage so, with their late, late revival, Town can be happy with that desperately needed turnaround in what felt like their biggest game of the season.

But before that, Saturday was a very unpleasant experience for Ricketts, his players and the fans.

Shrewsbury did not deserve to win this game. Wycombe were the better team, the hosts were indebted to goalkeeper Steve Arnold in a first half where he made three big saves.

It is difficult to ignore the borderline toxic atmosphere that was directed at the Shrewsbury boss for much of the second half until Town found the net.

It felt like turning the clock back some four or five months to the end of John Askey’s reign, where fans unleashed vicious chants at full-time against Salford City.

The verbal volley directed at Ricketts made for a toe-curlingly awkward scene. Greg Docherty, the hot topic of debate, was warming up to a constant chorus of his name, while ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ and even ‘Danny Coyne’s Barmy Army’ . The latter, with Town’s popular first-team coach sharing a dugout with the manager, is surely unhelpful.

There was a real irony that, when Docherty was introduced in the 79th minute – to the sound of huge ironic cheers – Town were losing. They went on to win, Docherty swung in a fine free-kick for the equaliser.

Docherty isn’t the reason Town won the game, but he sure had an impact. You still have to give enormous credit to the superb Shaun Whalley, dancing into the box to win the penalty from Adam El-Abd. No other Town player would have taken it by the scruff of the neck like that.

Then credit skipper Ollie Norburn for his nerves of steel. He ordered Fejiri Okenabirhie off the penalty, said ‘it’s mine’ and buried it.

But surely there is a message in there somewhere that Docherty’s influence could be crucial? It lifted the fans, gave Town another gear. Boy they needed it.

The Scot’s absence from the team is causing a severe rift between management and fans. Docherty had his say in the finale and you would think he has done enough to be in the team next time against Portsmouth.

The Meadow felt like it was ready to blow come full-time. With five minutes remaining things looked extremely bleak and alarming for the manager, who faced serious discontent with his side 1-0 down having played poorly at home.

Fortunately, Town got over the line through a moment of madness from El-Abd for tripping Whalley in added time.

And it is true that, at this stage of the season, points are all that matter.

Town could have played better than that, out-played their visitors, and only took a point or nothing.

Instead they were well below-par, and have been for a little while now, except this time – mercifully – they rallied and turned it around. The manner of their late goals, at least, shows a level of character and desire in the ranks.

Town must cling to that and must channel it, build on it, and put some results together.

They were likely to need three or four wins before Saturday so, in essence, they are one step closer to survival. Town are two places better off in the League One standings, but that does not say a lot – the table is one of the tightest at this stage of the season for many a year.

But a win is not a bad place to start. There is the difficult challenge of Portsmouth next – although admittedly Town have often raised their game against the big guns this season.

But they do have other home games against Scunthorpe, Oxford and Walsall, all struggling and well in the mire.

It is pretty simple, Shrews must win at least two of those. The away form has been dreadful this season but teams are likely to need more than 50 points to survive, that means something must be taken from crunch games at rivals Southend or Gillingham.

Either way you look at it, and wherever in the fixture list Town may or may not pick up points, they simply must play better than on Saturday.

It is, at times, encouraging to play badly and win – and Town won’t care if they secured enough wins without playing well – but the likelihood is they aren’t going to do that.

It is alarming that, in arguably their biggest game of the season, some Shrewsbury players can put in such an insipid display.

Ricketts made bold calls in his team selection, continuing to leave out Docherty and Okenabirhie as well as a first dropping of Anthony Grant this season.

The selection was met with discontent and as the Town boss needed players to step up, very few did a job.

Far too many went missing, not just for a poor first half but right the way through until 80 minutes and beyond.

Only Arnold, Whalley, Norburn and Aaron Amadi-Holloway could have any real credit – and then the latter sent an angry tweet out half an hour after the full-time whistle questioning why fans call him ‘sh*t’.

Amid the attempt of morale-boosting social media posts from his team-mates it felt like Amadi-Holloway’s views were a snapshot of some of the difficulties Town players are facing.

The three points are huge for Shrews at this stage of a tight scrap but they are massive for the manager who was facing real flak. There will be more to come if Town are not able to build on this victory and get away from trouble.

After disheartening defeats on the road Town fans returned to the Meadow ready to be encouraged that their side would respond. They voiced their discontent at what happened and Town got out of jail late on but there is still a lot to do.