Sam Ricketts thoughts ahead of the Sky Bet League One trip to Oxford United
Sam Ricketts talks to Shrewsweb ahead of Town's Sky Bet League One encounter against Oxford United on Saturday.
The U's sit sixth place in the League table after a strong start to the 2019/20 campaign. With 29 points on the board, Oxford have been unbeaten in their last six league games with four wins and two draws.
Sam returns to one of his former clubs on Saturday. Sam began his youth career at The U's in 2000, after he was part of the senior squad where he stayed until 2003.
"I think I've only played there once when I left many years ago. It'll be nice to go back and see a few people and hopefully get a result." Sam said.
Oxford are a high scoring team and have the highest goal difference in League One with 18 goals. "To be fair, I think they're probably the best team in the league. They finished last season really well, first four games this season were a bit sticky and ever since then they've been blowing teams away.
"They've got some very good players with a lot of strength and depth in their squad as well and they're a side which have been pushing to be at the top now for a couple of years, in terms of their recruitment and everything going with it and this year it looks like it's clicking into place."
Sam can go into Saturday's game with confidence as Town have kept out other teams that are also a high scoring team. "We know we can put a performance on against anyone in this league and give ourselves a chance in any game but these score a lot of goals and a lot of different goals of different players as well, they don't just rely on one person, so we have to nullify them going forward. They are very clinical in their attacking play, they do have weaknesses, but their attacking play nullifies a lot of their weaknesses."
James Henry is on eight goals this season for Oxford. "If you score eight goals you're a big player certainly, he used to be a wide player, had great crossing ability, dead ball situations but has found himself playing more in-field and that frees himself up to shoot more and with that he's scored more goals as well and playing with the freedom and confidence in there too."
"We don't change, we have our set ways we have little things in our formation with a little bit of tactical differences we can always manipulate, before the game or during the game but we have a way of playing that we will stick to." Sam talked about the way Town play and that nothing will be changed because of the way Oxford line-up.
Town have a lot of clean sheets under their belt this season and will hope to gain another one on Saturday. "Good spectacles if we all get the result we want and that's the ultimate thing, we spoke a few weeks ago, and I'd take a 4-3 win now, and certainly you can have your spectacle, and we'll have the points as well."