Shropshire Star

Sam Ricketts praises Shrewsbury character after thrilling comeback win

A delighted Sam Ricketts paid tribute to the character and togetherness in his Shrewsbury Town squad after their thrilling comeback win at Accrington Stanley.

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Town ended a run of more than six hours without a goal in all competitions to come back from 2-0 down inside the final 13 minutes at Wham Stadium with Daniel Udoh netting a last-gasp winner on his debut.

The victory, making it two wins, a draw and a defeat in the opening four league games, lifted Shrewsbury to eighth in League One.

The visitors were able to celebrate the stunning finale with the 455 away fans behind the goal in the driving rain in Lancashire. Ricketts praised the celebrations and spirit to launch such a comeback – on an evening where his side were unfortunate to be two goals down.

He said: “I said were a really big work in progress but what you did see from tonight was the team spirit and within the players and everyone is in this together, the character showed by everyone, the players on the pitch, the players that come off the subs that come on, the subs that didn’t come on.

"You can see the atmosphere at the end of the game and the drive to come back.

"A lot of teams could’ve given up, this isn’t an easy place to come especially on a Tuesday night, we’ve nearly probably seen what the league is going throw at us every game from our four games now, but our togetherness and everything is vital.”

Ricketts felt his side put in a much-improved display from the home stalemate against Rochdale last weekend.

The boss added: “I saw a real big step up and improvement in terms of ball speed today and moving the ball which is vital going forward for the way that we want to play.

"I was devastated the way we were 2-0 down because I don’t think the level of performance deserved that and I didn’t want to knock what we’re trying to do. The comeback is everything and the supporters who were here can see the togetherness and what we’re trying to do.

“I think it will give everyone a shot in the arm, confidence wise, not only the performance, we spoke about the performance at half-time, it was about going on again.

"We find ourselves 1-0 down – like I said I'm not sure if it was a penalty was it not – then 2-0 down all of a sudden off a great strike but the togetherness and everything.

"Now we must build on this and go again and where we are as a team were in our infant stages, but we’ve got like the likes of Josh Laurent and Ollie Norburn to come back in.”