Shropshire Star

Sam Ricketts confident of a Shrewsbury Town goal rush

Sam Ricketts believes a tactical switch will help his goal-shy Shrewsbury Town produce the goods in the final third.

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Town host Oxford tomorrow, a side Ricketts rates in the top three in League One, and the boss believes the switch to a 4-3-3 can answer the critics.

Shrews have struggled for goals this term and are still second-lowest scorers in the division with 29 from 33 games but have fared better in recent matches, scoring in each of the last three after a tactical reshuffle.

Ricketts, who played three forwards in the win at Bristol Rovers last weekend, said: “We have to play to our strengths as a team. We worked really hard in the summer to be hard to beat and resolute.

“It served us really well but obviously we want to score more goals, we need to score more goals and how could we do that?

“We tinkered with the system before and now we’ve changed. We went 3-4-3 and now we’ve gone 4-3-3, always with the ability to play any of them.

“We’re just trying to use what we’ve got to our advantage and be as threatening as we can.

“Ryan Giles was a big player for us until he went back. He was a big impact player for us, a big attacking player on the left. We lost that so we have to evolve and find other ways to be threatening.”

Ryan Giles was recalled by Wolves in January (AMA)

In-form Oxford have won four on the spin and climbed to seventh ahead of their Montgomery Waters Meadow trip.

Town have risen to 15th with two wins from three.

“We’re keen to do as well as we can,” the boss added. “We want to finish well and in a high a position as possible.

“We want to get that feeling of winning results and everything that comes with it.

“We want to finish the season as well as possible to go into the summer to get ready again.”

Ricketts added on recent improvement: “It just takes the pressure off everybody really. We’re here to win games.

“As much as we played well in that period and should’ve got more points than we did – we didn’t.

“We had to look at it, address it, and get back to winning ways.

“It’s nice to do so and now we’ve got an opportunity to work, rest and prepare for games.”