Shropshire Star

Dean Whitehead: Shrewsbury must be more ruthless

Assistant boss Dean Whitehead admits Shrewsbury Town must develop a killer instinct to begin chalking up League One wins.

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Town, without a game this week owing to the international break, are working on punishing opposition while on top in games.

Sam Ricketts’ side are yet to win in four league fixtures, passing up opportunities to put games to bed while in the ascendency.

Shrewsbury led their previous two league games, against Plymouth and Gillingham, after encouraging spells but faded and were pegged back.

“I think we most certainly have to kill teams off when we have the opportunity,” said Ricketts’ No.2 Whitehead.

“We went behind against Northampton and didn’t really recover from Ethan’s (Ebanks-Landell) injury, we had (Aaron Pierre) Pierre suspended that day and were shuffling the pack at the back.

“We got back in the game and looked strong. Mistakes happen but we have to respond better when they do go against us.”

Whitehead added: “They’re young players. They are used to playing B team football or under-23 football. This is a different level in terms of three points on the line.

“They will understand (game management) and get better at it. It’s up to our senior players to help them do that.”

Town earned a second EFL Trophy win of the season against Bolton on Tuesday.