Sam Ricketts says Shrewsbury Town won’t be complacent with threat of relegation

The Town chief said the club are not worried about the prospect of being dragged into a fight and are instead mindful of winning every game they can.

After a tough late home defeat to drop-zone battlers Tranmere on Tuesday, Ricketts’ men head to another of the division’s out-of-form sides, Bristol Rovers, tomorrow.

Bury’s expulsion from League One at the beginning of the season, meaning just three clubs will suffer the drop, and the Town boss feels fewer points will be required to survive. Town are 17th, 12 points clear of Tranmere, who occupy the third and final relegation spot. Ricketts said: “No, I wouldn’t say that you are worried, but at the same time you’re not complacent either.

“First and foremost we want to get some wins for us because we don’t want to let things slide. We proved in the first half of the year what we’re capable of.

“For reasons we’ve spoke of numerous times, the last six weeks haven’t been ideal in terms of picking up points in the league.

“Injuries are conpounding that fact. After this weekend is the first time we play on (just) Saturday for a whole month, which we relish.”

Bottom side Bolton, who started the campaign with minus-12 points, are a relegation cert while troubled Southend are only five points better off, 15 points adrift of safety.

Town have 38 points with 12 matches to go, including a daunting run of fixtures after tomorrow’s trip to the Memorial Stadium.

Rovers have won just once in 16 games in all competitions, having found life tough since Graham Coughlan departed as boss.

Ricketts continued: “Mathematically it will take a little while. You will imagine it (safety) will be lower than 50 points because Bury aren’t in the league so there’s two games less.

“All points totals are going to be a little bit skewed.”

Ricketts again bemoaned Town’s availability situation with hamstring injury victims Shaun Whalley and Conor McAleny not near a return.

Daniel Udoh, who the boss admitted was tired after Tuesday’s defeat, is also a doubt. Dave Edwards is fit to feature again after his ankle scare.

Highly-rated youth-team striker Charlie Caton, who turned 17 in November, has been training with the first-team squad.

The former Wrexham and Bala youngster has previously trained with the Welsh Schools’ FA.