Verdict: Failings in front of goal haunt Shrewsbury Town

Sam Ricketts must be feel he is repeating himself in his post-match interviews this season.

There is certainly a case of deja vu writing these analysis pieces – as Shrewsbury have been made to pay for their lack of ruthlessness time after time this season.

Town cannot be bailed out by their superb defence every time. It is impossible to keep clean sheets every week. The attackers simply have to take the weight off their rearguard.

One-nil winners Wycombe climbed to the top of the division with this textbook smash-and-grab success.

The high-flying hosts’ hard-fought victory brought back yet more memories and comparisons with the Shrewsbury team that made it all the way to the play-off final against the odds two years ago.

Ricketts’ side are second-lowest scorers in League One with 12 goals from their 15 games having not scored in eight of those outings.

There is no mistaking that Town have an issue scoring goals.

Whether it is a stylistic problem, a mentality quirk, a tactical fault, a quality issue or something else is open to debate. But the numbers going forward do not make for good reading.

But here, at a table-topping side with an unblemished home record this season, it wasn’t for the lack of creating chances.

Jason Cummings, the man tasked to make the difference in the opposition box, made his one moment count against Sunderland the previous week but it wouldn’t quite fall for Town’s Scottish sharp-shooter this time around.

Disappointment from this defeat, a first in five league away games after Salop had gone unbeaten in October, was tangible – which says a lot given that, according to the table at least, Ricketts’ men were facing the best side in the division.

Frustration must be tempered by the fact that no side has won at Adams Park all season and Shrewsbury went closer than most have managed. There is no shame at not picking up three points here (and travelling Town fans will be used to coming away pointless from these surroundings).

But what made Saturday an even more bitter pill to swallow was that the contest was there to be won for Salop.

They looked like they had every shot of bringing the Chairboys’ impressive home record to an end.

Town started very well. For the first 30 minutes they played as well as they had all season.

They were on the front foot and Wycombe looked powerless to deal with Town all over the park. Shrewsbury made their hosts appear what they are on paper – with all due respect to Gareth Ainsworth’s fliers – pretty ordinary.

And Town were creating. Donald Love shot narrowly wide from distance before Shaun Whalley and Dave Edwards were causing problems with their threatening runs.

Cummings found himself in the box bearing down on goal on three occasions. One was well snuffed out by a defender, the other dragged just across goal and the third – the best chance of the three – was saved by Ryan Allsop.

You felt like, as in other occasions this season, Shrews could live to regret those moments. Wycombe were poor in the first half. For the club on the crest of a wave, with a shot at going top having just secured encouraging new ownership, there was an eerie atmosphere in the torrid conditions.

It was pretty clear Ainsworth’s men would not be as bad after the break and they increased the pressure, aided by Town’s willingness to give soft free-kicks away in dangerous positions for Joe Jacobson’s wand of a left foot to deliver.

The pressure told as, most unlike themselves, Town failed to win the first or second ball in the box and Rolando Aarons was left in far too much room to sweep home.

It was a blot on the defence’s copybook as former Chairboy Aaron Pierre dominated Adebayo Akinfenwa all afternoon, aided well by Omar Beckles and Ro-Shaun Williams – until the latter saw red when he collected a second yellow card in stoppage time.

Williams will be a miss against Peterborough tomorrow. Thankfully Ethan Ebanks-Landell made a timely recovery to make the bench at Wycombe.

Unfortunately for the visitors, who were backed by superb noise from 420 travelling Salopians, Town’s response to falling behind just before the hour was not enough.

It felt like Shrewsbury struggled to switch from contending for a very decent point to needing to salvage an equaliser.

Ricketts tried to change things, sending on Sean Goss and Fejiri Okenabirhie, tweaking the set-up as he did so, but there was little joy. Town lacked urgency and a bit of imagination in the final third. The late barrage just didn’t come, Wycombe didn’t have to soak up nearly enough pressure.

Even so Shrewsbury should have equalised a few minutes from time but skipper Ollie Norburn’s gilt-edged header was poor and lacked decisiveness or composure – rather summing up the team’s display.

Ricketts takes flak from sections of the support for not taking the shackles off his side. The newly-adopted 3-4-3 that worked so well against Sunderland looked good in spells here and seems to allow more bodies forward.

Yet the manager cannot bear the brunt of frustration if his side are creating chances and players are not hitting the net. Ricketts cannot physically make his players convert their opportunities.

There were positives. Wycombe are currently top dogs and Town made them look ordinary at times.

Cummings got through his first 90 minutes since joining, which is a huge bonus.

But Town’s lack of urgency, belief or creativity when behind needs to be addressed.