Sam Ricketts reflects on Town's 1-1 FA Cup draw with Stoke City.
Shrewsbury Town faced Stoke City in the third-round of the FA Cup at the Montgomery Waters Meadow this afternoon.
Town took the lead but were unable to secure the win after a Peter Crouch second-half equaliser.
Sam was pleased with the performance from his team and hopes to see those standards maintained.
“I was really pleased with the standard of the performance,” said Town’s manager.
“We are setting standards which I want to maintain. We cant hit them every game, but I want to hit them more games than not - we did it again today.
“The last little piece missing from today was to get through to the next round. We were so close.
“I think we had the better chances and had a really good chance to go two nil up in the game.
“Our goalkeeper had one save to make all game which tells you something.
“We tried to nullify them as much as we could and we forced them into efforts from longer range.”
Sam was disappointed with the goal but was proud of how his team took the game to the Potters.
“I am disappointed with the goal,” said Sam. “It’s a minute bit of detail on how I like to defend crosses and we didn’t quite do that – we got punished for it.
“I can’t fault the players desire, determination and willingness to keep working and stick to the game plan – that was outstanding.
“They deserve their plaudits, although not as much as if we had won the game.
“It’s probably a testament to us that they had to make a triple substitution to try and get back into the game.
“Other than that, Steve didn’t have a save to make. There was one first-half and that was it.
“We frustrated them and defended resolutely, we worked incredibly hard.
“It was an awkward finish by Crouch but very good. It took something like that for them to get the equaliser.”