Town came away from the Cherry Red Records Stadium with a point thanks to a Jason Cummings second half strike.
Sam Ricketts reflects on Town’s one-all draw away against AFC Wimbledon. Ricketts talks to Shrewsweb about his team’s performance.
“I think ultimately, we probably made it hard for ourselves. The difference between the first half and second half was vast really, what we did in the second half in term of moving the ball it’s what we’re trying to do. We just couldn’t get into it in the first half, we gave ourselves a hill to climb by going in at one-nil down by a set-piece, I even think it might have been an own goal. With that going against us and the second half the performance vastly improved and scored one, had a few opportunities to score again, had a very good one at the end with Josh Laurent. It’s just frustrating that we didn’t start the first half like we started the second half.” Sam said.
Town were unlucky today to not come out with the three points after having plenty of chances but just couldn’t find an end product. The final 10 minutes were end to end as both teams looked to sneak the winning goal.
“I think you’ve always got mixed emotions when you’ve not won a game, you’re never swinging one way or particularly the other like I said we made it hard for ourselves. First half wasn’t where we want to be, we spoke at half time and second half, I think that everyone watching the game saw a better performance. But credit to the players in terms of that they have to go out on the pitch, we ask, we push, and we prod them, the second half we ended up doing well. At times we looked a far better-controlled side.”
Debutante Jason Cummings scored after being on the pitch for just five minutes. The impact Cummings made with coming on is that he secured Town a point. Cummings had a chance saved where he attempted a bicycle kick from the edge of the 18-yard-box. Laurent’s late effort that was wide, could’ve made more of an impact if he potentially squared the ball to Cummings who was racing into the 18-yard-box.
“That’s why we bought him to the club, bought him and Lang obviously who started the first half. Jason has got off to a great start, physically and fitness-wise he’s not ready to start at all. Although he’s not ready to start a game yet, he’s got that impact to come off the bench. Towards the end, he could’ve had a second if Josh had squared it to him, but Josh went for goal and that’s fine. We were just hoping to capitalise on the three on one.”
“It was the one where Brad Walker made a good pass and you’re thinking come on then let’s slot this home or square it and unfortunately we didn’t, but Josh worked really hard today. it was just one of those that would’ve been nice to slot home.” Sam reflects on Laurent’s late miss in the dying minutes of play.
A few changes made today in Sam’s side. Sam started Dan Udoh and handed Lang his first start and his debut. Sam explains why he started the game with Udoh and Lang. “Just energy to be honest with you, to try and as a team-work their backline with a slightly different way today so we wanted to get some energetic legs. Dan has that enthusiasm to burn and so does Callum, chasing the odd lost cause and winning possession whatever it may be, to help the team get higher up the pitch and when we do get in the other half, we just need to pass the ball like we did in the second half.”
Captain Ollie Norburn and defender Ro-Shaun Williams made their return to the side after lengthy injuries that kept them both out of the squad for a while. “I think the two of them had a really good impact and you can see on the team, what Ollie Norburn, he’s not playing this season, but you can see the quality he has, and he hasn’t played in so long. He gave everything and he played longer than we thought that’s just because he wanted to drive and carry on and lead the team as their captain.”
Scott Golbourne and Louis Thompson didn’t make this week’s squad due to the depth and strength that Town now have to offer. Stand in captain Dave Edwards was also left out of today’s squad due to picking up a knock and is very unlikely that he’ll be back in time for Tuesday’s game against Southend.