Sam Ricketts: Shrewsbury Town couldn't do any more in defeat
Sam Ricketts insists he could not have done any more as his Shrewsbury side fell to a late sucker-punch at Rochdale in a game they dominated.
Town dominated large parts of the Spotland clash but were undone by an 88th-minute winner from home substitute Tyler Smith.
Rochdale goalkeeper Robert Sanchez had been awarded man of the match for the hosts after big saves in either half to deny Jason Cummings and Callum Lang - while Shrews worked countless more good opportunities to find the killer breakthrough they merited.
Ricketts, who handed a debut to the impressive attacker Conor McAleny signed on loan from Fleetwood on Thursday, revealed that the players took ownership of their shortcomings after the game in the dressing room.
He said: "We had three forwards on the pitch as we have done recently, we were pushing for it.
"We moved it really well today, we moved them around and caused all sorts of problems.
"We just didn't score and I can't do any more.
"The best thing that happened in there (dressing room) is the players spoke after the game because that's more powerful than me talking.
"They understand the reasons why and what we need to do. We just have to move on."
Shrewsbury remain 16th in League One ahead of their historic FA Cup trip to Liverpool on Tuesday but are seven games without a win in the league.
Shrews' last league win came on December 21 and Ricketts' men are also without a clean sheet in the division in seven games since.
"It depends which way you look at it, if you want to be negative you can say that, or you could say before this week we'd lost two in 12 and now two on the bounce," Ricketts added.
"Our performances haven't been reflected in results, They've been better but we have to start scoring goals when we dominate.
"We can't have 15 shots and not score and not win the game."
The Town boss continued: "I'm immensely frustrated for a huge number of reasons.
"We've come away from home to a team that really try to move the ball and have possession-based football.
"We've had more possession, more shots, but just couldn't score. We couldn't do any more than that.
"We nullified them to nothing, dominated the game, the second half, and got caught with a goal against.
"That's where we need to turn all those chances, all those shots, into goals and unfortunately we couldn't do so.
"The fact that their goalkeeper got man of the match makes it even worse."
McAleny was one of five January recruits for Shrewsbury. Two deadline day arrivals, Kayne Ramsay and Harry Burgoyne, were not involved.
Ricketts and Town were left disappointed on Friday evening's as two or three late transfer targets failed to come off.
"It's disappointing not to get some of those we really wanted which would've made a difference to us," he said.
"We've got a really good group of players ready to attack the remainder of the season."
