Gaffer's thoughts after the Emirates FA Cup win away to Stoke City
Shrewsbury Town managed to secure a spot in the FA Cup forth-round with a spectacular comeback.
James Bolton rifled home a goal to set Town on their way to a spectacular 3-2 win over the Potters.
Sam Ricketts was pleased with the result and was delighted to see his team come back from two goals down.
“I don’t like football clichés but it was a game of two halves,” said Sam. “First-half we didn’t play at the tempo we wanted to play at.
“We didn’t have intensity, we didn’t get close to them and we let the Stoke players do what they wanted to do.
“The second-half was completely different. I made a tactical change at half-time which I thought could help us.
“The players took to it and you saw a team grow with belief in the second-half and play how we want to play.
“We have to be aggressive to win the ball and break quickly. We were never going to come here and dominate the ball.
“The game plan didn’t change, we just changed the formation and it was still exactly the same principals of trying to frustrate, break and steal.
“We did that in the second-half and we were outstanding.”
Sam was pleased with the clinical nature of his teams finishes and hopes to see more of the same in the coming games.
“The longer the second-half went we grew,” said Sam. “Bolton’s goal kick-started it and everyone started to get some belief.
“We are a good team when we play with aggression and play with intensity.
“90 percent isn’t good enough. We have to be at our best to win games and in the second-half we were.
“What really pleased me was the composure in the last 10 minutes – trying to kill a little bit of time.
“Today we were far better at seeing out the game and there is a lot of positives to take from the game.”