Sam Ricketts reflects on Town's 1-0 loss to Liverpool in the Emirates FA Cup.
Shrewsbury Town were unable to cause another Emirates FA Cup upset against Liverpool and lost out 1-0 at Anfield.
Ro-Shaun Williams unfortunately headed the ball into his own net and Liverpool closed out the game to progress into the fifth-round of the competiton.
Sam Ricketts was disappointed with the result and felt his team couldn't reach the required level to trouble the Reds. He said: “We just lacked energy and zip in our game, mentally and physically – we couldn’t really get going.
“We had a little spell in the second-half after a chat at half-time. Ultimately, our players gave it everything they had but couldn’t reach that level of performance. We physically couldn’t get up to standard because of the games we’ve played.
“I haven’t seen the goal back, I assume they came to the right decision. I don’t mind VAR, it gets the decision done how it should be. We didn’t have VAR in the first game, but we do here – I think you should have it for every game or not at all.
“The players worked incredibly hard to get here but I don’t think we can take too much from the game. We couldn’t get going and couldn’t reach those energy levels.
“Before the first game, it was the first time we had a free week. You could see the difference in performance levels. We only scratched the surface of what we could do.
“You can’t play football at 90 percent, you can’t play at 95 percent – you have to be at 100 percent. Unfortunately, the amount of games we have played caught up with us tonight. Preparation was fine, we just need time for recovery to get going.
“The players are bitterly disappointed because they knew if they reached their normal levels, we would have given a far better account of ourselves – possibly could have gone on to win the game.”