Sam Ricketts: Shrewsbury's Ro-Shaun Williams has great potential

The 20-year-old defender was handed his Town bow after his transfer from Manchester United last month and caught the eye at Bristol Rovers on Saturday.

Williams, who had been with the Old Trafford club since he was six, decided to join Shrewsbury on a two-and-a-half year deal to sample senior football for the first time.

Ricketts, a former top-flight defender, was impressed with what he saw from Williams, who played on the right of a back three alongside Mat Sadler and Omar Beckles. The boss believes Town’s ‘athlete’ has great potential.

“I probably saw the same as everyone else – I saw an athlete,” said Ricketts.

“He’s quick, strong and he’s got a great attitude to leave Man United and come to play football with us.

“You can see his attributes as a defender, he’s still a kid so he’s got plenty to learn.

“But I saw an excellent debut, he’s someone who’s got great potential. But we need to help him, improve him and keep working on him.”

Ricketts had no qualms about throwing the youngster into a feisty environment.

The boss was pleased to see a burgeoning partnership with captain Sadler.

He continued: “Ro-Shaun and Mat Sadler were unable to play midweek (at Wolves in the FA Cup ), it gave us an opportunity to build a partnership between them in training. I thought Ro-Shaun was excellent on his debut.”

Town were pegged back at the Memorial Stadium as Alex Rodman netted a free header, meaning they are without a league win in eight outings.

Ricketts said: “We’ll be looking at that because we need to tighten up those little areas.

“It’s such a small decision but it has such a big bearing on the game. We need to tighten up a little bit then the idea is in the future you win the game 1-0.”