Norwood secures comeback victory
SAM Ricketts hailed Shrewsbury’s late fightback as Ollie Norburn’s stoppagetime penalty sealed a win over Wycombe Wanderers.
Jason McCarthy’s fine free-kick midway through the second half gave Wycombe the lead. But Omar Beckles headed an 87th-minute equaliser before Norburn kept his cool from the spot after Shaun Whalley was brought down by Adam El-Abd.
Boss Ricketts said: “It was frustrating for large parts of the game, trying to get some intensity and tempo. We couldn’t quite do what we spoke about trying to do until the last five, 10 minutes or so.
“Eventually we started getting the ball out wide to Shaun a bit earlier, getting him in one-vone situations, allowing some better crosses to come in and, obviously, Shaun winning a penalty as well. At the end it’s pure elation at winning. It’s about time we won a game in injury time.
“For large parts of the game, it was frustrating. We were waiting for the game to come into life and for us to impose ourselves. Luckily, it happened with just enough time left.”
Wycombe had the better of the first-half chances before breaking the deadlock in the 67th minute when McCarthy curled a free-kick into the top corner of the net from just outside the penalty area.
That’s how it stayed until three minutes from time when Beckles headed home Greg Docherty’s free-kick.
There was still time for the home side to secure a winner as skipper Norburn converted from the spot after Whalley was upended by former Shrewsbury defender El-Abd.
It meant more frustration for Wycombe manager Gareth Ainsworth.
He said: “We lost all three points and we’ve given it away, we’ve given them the game. We were the better team. Their keeper in the first half made some fantastic saves and he’s kept them in it.
“But I didn’t see that coming. I’m very disappointed with the two goals. The free-kick, it’s a free header in front of goal.
“You can’t defend like that. And secondly, a couple of rash challenges have led to a penalty and, again, we don’t defend like that, it’s not something we do in training. It’s getting late on in games and people make wrong decisions.”