Western Morning News (Saturday)
Lowe has no time for gratitude
PLYMOUTH Argyle manager Ryan Lowe admits he owes a lot to Shrewsbury Town, but the depth of his gratitude will count for nothing when the two clubs clash at Home Park tomorrow.
Lowe was a prolific non-league hot-shot when, having just turned 20 and having been released by his boyhood club Liverpool, he sought a route back into the professional game.
He went on numerous trials for various Football League clubs – even at Liverpool’s big city rivals Everton – and while he was not taken on at Goodison Park, he was given some advice that ultimately changed the course of his career.
“I had been at Everton on trial and it was Dave (Fogg) that recommended me to Shrewsbury,” Lowe said. “He said to go there on trial for a week, show your fitness and after a week, I signed a 12 month contract and then six months into that, they gave me a three and a half year contract, so I must have done something right!
“I deserved it to be honest with you. I’d been everywhere for a club, but no one would take me! So I just had that little bit of luck.
“It was massive for me because I had been rejected by almost every club you can think of. For Dave Fogg and Kevin Ratcliffe to give me a great opportunity at the time to go there was great for me.
“It was an eye opener when I first went, I was a young lad and didn’t know what to expect in the pro ranks and it took me a while to get used to all the stuff you have to do... you can’t be seen out with your mates on a Thursday night, or have late nights, you have to make sure you are in and sleeping, eating the right foods and training every day, so it was an eye opener. But it was certainly something I loved.
“But when you are on the other side, you have to let it go. I still have some good friends and family – or not so much family but we class them as family – who live in Shrewsbury and I had a great five years there, some ups and downs certainly. Some fans like me, some fans don’t, but that’s the way it is in football nowadays, but I respect them massively.
“They are a great club, great tradition and moving in the right direction with a young manager in Sam Ricketts, so definitely respect them.”
Shrewsbury are certainly streetwise when it comes to League One with this their but they have had a mixed start to the campaign with a draw at much-fancied Portsmouth followed by a surprise 2-1 home defeat by another of the promoted teams from League two, Northampton Town.
They picked up their first win of the season with a 3-0 win against Newcastle United’s Under-21 side in the EFL Trophy in midweek – and also bagged three goals in losing a pulsating Carabao Cup tie 4-3 at Middlesbrough at the beginning of September.
However, the 13 goals in four Shrewsbury games so far this campaign is nothing on Argyle, who have seen an incredible 24 in their five games so far. Unfortunately, it is 12 for and 12 against and Lowe knows only too well what needs to improve.
“The good thing is that we are scoring goals. The not so good thing is we are conceding goals but we are in a position where we are scoring goals and credit to my players, I love scoring goals, but keeping the back door shut is one we have got to work on.
“As I have said, we are new boys in the league and these lads who are here now and train every single day work their socks off to try and keep the back door shut – that’s from the front to the back as well.
“It is the way we play, so it is probably my fault at times because I want us to be expansive, play an attacking style of football and be exciting, but we do need to learn to be a bit more solid and resolute, which we will.
“But we are new in the league, we have to adapt to it and learn where we can make mistakes and where we can’t and it just makes our jobs more interesting in that we have to keep working on these things because we are certainly not the finished article, especially in League One.
“Last year, in League Two, we were very good, but as I have said before, you will get punished by mistakes in League One, so we have to eradicate those mistakes and then, I think we will be OK.”