Sam's thoughts ahead of the Sky Bet League One trip to the Keepmoat Stadium
Sam Ricketts previews Town's midweek clash as Shrewsbury travel to The Keepmoat Stadium Tuesday night. Doncaster Rovers sit one point and one place below Shrewsbury in The Sky Bet League One table.
Many fans have said that Saturday's game against Bristol City was the best performance of the season, Sam shared his thoughts. "There was a lot of really good stuff on Saturday, and I thought we were really good with and without the ball and as a team we were very compact. We were hard to play against the most pleasing thing is we went away from home to a good Championship side and had more possession and more shots, and we moved the ball really well. We surprised a lot of people with how well we played and how we passed it."
Shrewsbury have had such a quick turnaround after Saturday, with only three days' rest and recovery, Town are back on the road. Town are also back in action at the weekend as they host Lincoln, which will be another rapid turnaround for Sam's side.
Sam will look to replicate the excellent performance. "With us a team, we are still evolving and understanding. If you look at all the top sides, the longer you've been together, the more you get that consistency. Ours now is that can we go again, can we replicate that, our key bits from our performance, can we do that on a regular basis. We'll prepare as we have done in every game and emphasize in the major points of the game."
With such a quick turnaround and a busy period coming at Town, Sam talked about whether there will be many changes throughout the squad. "Not really to be fair. We're OK. We'll have to see how the players recover from the game because they did work extremely hard in the game so we'll look at how the players are this morning and see who's ready to go again.
We've got no worries in terms of injury-wise, so that's good, but it might just be we want someone who's completely fresh coming into the game. You can't go into a match at 80/90% you need to be 100%, and that's the big thing."
Doncaster have had a mixture of results over the first half of the season. "They're a good side, they try and play football on a nice pitch. They've been a bit hampered, a little bit like us really. They are probably in a false league position because they're playing catch up in terms of games, they've got one more game than us in the league, which is so tight that three points can move you three or four positions up. They're a better side than their league position, and it's a bit like us.
Full respect for them, some really good footballers, a really good manager, he was doing really well in the Championship last year, and he was very unlucky to lose his job there. They're a side that we take very seriously and I think on their day they can be one of the best teams in the league and they've had some excellent results recently."
Rovers didn't have a game on Saturday. Many of their team will be going into tomorrow's game with fresh legs. "They'll be fresh coming into the game, just like going into the Bristol City game where they played, and we hadn't, so we have to take that into account going into the game. They'll be itching and ready to go."
Tomorrow's game will be a great chance for Town to leapfrog up the table as the clash will be the only game of League One. "We're behind, both of us, in terms of games, it's one of our catch-up games for us, and likewise for Donny. It's a great game to win when no one else is playing, you can make real strides and pick up points."
Sam confirms there are no new injuries to his squad ahead of tomorrow's fixture. "Hopefully everyone's OK, just running the rule over one or two, but hopefully everyone should be fine going into the game."