Richard Dobson opens up on his relationship with Shrewsbury boss Gareth Ainsworth

Gareth Ainsworth was appointed as Salop head coach in November, but since he has been working in football coaching, he has never gone anywhere without his number two, Dobson. 

The pair have been in situ in Shropshire for four months. Ainsworth wears his heart on his sleeve on the touchline, heading and kicking every ball along with his team.

And Dobson told the Shropshire Star that he likes to take the emotion out of things.

He said: “I have to manage the manager you know at times because I know him, I know him inside out, I know when he's angry, and when he's not. 

“There are times on the touchline when I'll just walk up to him quietly and go concentrate on the game, not the referee, or you know something along those lines because I can just see it starting to bubble. 

“I think I'm probably quite a calm head for him. I've always wanted to be somebody that takes the emotion out of the decision-making processes. I think emotion can sometimes skew your thought process. 

“Gaz obviously offers the energy and the sort of noise, and he's loud in the morning, he's bubbly, he's positive, and we've probably struck quite a nice balance in that respect.”

The pair were immensely successful during their more than 10 years together at Wycombe Wanderers. They secured promotion to League One and the Championship with the Chairboys. 

And Dobson says it is his responsibility to challenge the Shrewsbury head coach. 

“He probably hates me from time to time,” he continued. “Because whilst he's all full of energy and positivity, I’m kind of about the process. You know the amount of times where I'll challenge him or I'll question why he's doing what he's doing. 

“Sometimes I absolutely agree with him 100%, but it's a bit like that maths teacher who wants to see your working out.

“I think it works really well as our previous chairman used to call us yin and yang, because we find that middle ground together - it seems to work.”

After overseeing an initial improvement in results in Shropshire, which saw Town close to closing the gap and moving out of the bottom four, they are now adrift at the bottom of League One, and they are looking at a rebuild in the fourth tier next season.