RICKETTS HAPPY TO HOLD UNITED
SHREWSBURY boss Sam Ricketts said he thought the goalless draw was the least his team deserved from their game at promotionchasing Oxford.
“I thought we were well worth a point,” said the former Wales international, who began his playing career with United.
“In the first half we were by far the better team. We started the game really well and we were outstanding.
“We were the ones pressing and you could hear the home fans grumbling, which is always a sign that the away team are doing things well.
“In the second half we were expecting to have to dig in, and we did that.
“I’m delighted with the performance and happy with the point.
“We negated them an awful lot and our keeper didn’t have a shot to save until late on.”
The draw made it just one defeat in seven for the Shrews. But they were ruing not taking their chances in that dominant opening salvo.
Forced to play a makeshift midfield, Oxford struggled to win the ball in the opening 20 minutes when it was all Shrewsbury.
United’s new loan goalkeeper Jordan Archer was kept busy, twice saving from Dave Edwards, and James Henry cleared off the line from Aaron Pierre at a corner.
The home side did gradually get into it to enjoy decent possession, without being able to create much in the final third.
But they had the blow of seeing another midfielder, Anthony Forde, go off with a rib injury in the first half, and later also lost James Henry.
Josh Ruffels nearly brought Oxford victory near the end, but his low shot was kept out by Max O’Leary.
U’s boss Karl Robinson said: “I’m bamboozled that their camp think they were the better team.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for them, yet to me, we struggled for the first 15 minutes, but for the whole of the second half it was us – it was like a bombardment.
“In all my career I’ve never been so proud of a point. We’ve got 10 players that were out injured and a referee that was very poor.
“To put in a performance like that, and after we’d played on Wednesday night as well when Shrewsbury played on Tuesday, was fantastic.
“At half-time I said to my wide players to be a little more aggressive and we changed our system to three at the back, which made us better.”
Robinson’s big worry were further injuries to Forde and Henry, with the former taken by ambulance to the John Radcliffe Hospital. “Fordy was rushed to hospital with a couple of suspected broken ribs because he couldn’t breathe, so we wish him all the best,” added Robinson.