Victory for Shrewsbury must be a catalyst – Sam Ricketts
Sam Ricketts has urged Shrewsbury Town to use the character shown in Saturday’s dramatic comeback against Wycombe to kick-start their survival bid.
The victory was just Town’s third in the league since December and prevented them from falling into the League One relegation zone.
They remain deep in trouble, just one point above the bottom four ahead of Saturday’s visit of Portsmouth to Montgomery Waters Meadow.
Ricketts acknowledges Saturday’s 2-1 win, which came courtesy of two goals in the final six minutes, must act as a catalyst.
He said: “It can (be a turning point). We’ve played far, far better and lost this season.
“You want to win games, this time of year you have to win games. If it took playing not as well as we want but winning the game every week then I’d do it.
“Ultimately I want performances because over long courses performances get you results.
“But we played far better last Tuesday night against Plymouth and got beat, yet on Saturday we’ve come away with three points which are vital for us.
“The two goals in the latter stage of the game are vitally important for us and we have to use it as a real catalyst now for this week to take it into next week.”
Omar Beckles cancelled out Jason McCarthy’s fine free-kick for Wycombe before Ollie Norburn’s late spot-kick secured Town maximum points. And Ricketts felt the celebrations which followed Norburn’s 93rd-minute penalty, both on the pitch and in the dugout, proved everyone is pulling the same direction in the bid to secure League One survival.
The former Wrexham chief explained: “It shows character but it shows togetherness as well, with all the players celebrating together.
“It just shows what everyone’s in it together, we’re all backing each other, that’s what is needed at this time, to stay strong.
“We’ve won the game, we played far better and lost, but the most important thing is to win, we climbed the table.
“Now we have to take it on, that’s what’s really important.
“There is no divide here, I can hear the fans’ frustrations, I understand that.
“But we’re in this together, everybody works incredibly hard and you saw the togetherness from staff, players, everyone.”
