Different goalscoring options can help Shrewsbury Town – Sam Ricketts
Sam Ricketts believes having multiple goalscoring options works in Shrewsbury’s favour.
Town head to Doncaster tonight for their game in hand on the majority of the sides above them having seen their 16th different squad member score across all competitions this season.
Sean Goss’s FA Cup strike at Bristol City was another example of Shrews sharing the goals around – but Josh Laurent and Jason Cummings are top scorers with just four goals each at the midway point of the season.
But Ricketts argues that an array of goalscorers makes Shrewsbury more difficult to marshal.
The Town boss said: “I think it’s a really big positive. If you’re playing sides where one or two players score the vast majority of their goals then you know who to take care of.
“It is good we share goals around. I’m not going to say I wouldn’t like a centre-forward sat here now or 15 or 20 goals, of course I would.
“But it’s a really good point we share them around because there’s goals from different areas and different types of goals.”
Shrewsbury, in 14th, will hike up the League One standings towards their target of a play-off charge with three points in South Yorkshire tonight.
By beating Doncaster, who are one place below them, Town will climb to 11th and be just one point from a play-off position in the extremely tight table.
“It’s an opportunity to jump a few places more than anything which, (to help) psychologically, can see us sitting higher in the table than 14th, but still not quite in the play-offs,” Ricketts added. “I don’t think you can (look at the table), there are too many teams around us. A team one point outside the play-offs now can drop down to 14th. It was a bit like last year in the battle of the bottom half.
“You could be 12th and think you’re safe and a few results go against you and you’re back to 19th.
“It’s very, very tight. The biggest thing now is, halfway through a season, where are we at as a team? How will we improve and address the second half of the year?
“This isn’t a play-off final game, but one out of 22 that will determine where we come.”
