28 September 2021

Gareth Ainsworth delighted to see Wycombe show their creative side

28 September 2021

Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth told his side to be confident and creative and they listened as two second-half goals got them back on the winning trail at Shrewsbury

Joe Jacobson’s strike from range and a header from Ryan Tafazolli gave them a 2-0 lead and, despite a late goal from Matthew Pennington, they rallied the storm to see the game out and bounce back from the defeat at MK Dons.

And Ainsworth revealed his half-time talk with assistant manager Richard Dobson involved encouraging their players to be more inventive.

He said: “I’m absolutely delighted because I knew it would be tough here, don’t look at Shrewsbury’s league position and think they will be one of the lower sides in this league because they are not.

“Steve Cotterill is a good manager who has them well organised, and we knew it would be tough.

“They offer a big physical challenge like we usually do, and they back power up front with (Sam) Cosgrove and (Tom) Bloxham on the bench.

“We also knew that the team who produced the magic moments would be the victors and at half-time we demanded a bit more from the play.

“Richard Dobson has been doing some great sessions and he said can we be more confident and inventive and then Sully KaiKai produced the cross which caused chaos and then it was a great strike from JJ, and then it was a bit of skill that won the free-kick and Sully produced a great ball again.

“And those moments are important on a night like tonight when winter has set in, it’s cold, I’ve got the jacket on for the first time.”

Shrewsbury boss Cotterill insisted there were questionable decisions in the run up to both goals.

He said: “It was a frustrating night, we created enough chances and I have no issues with our boys tonight.

“If anything, we have to defend their goal better. I have no issues with them, they were excellent.

“We had a plan and we created enough to get something from it.

“As soon as they scored the game was a total disruption for 15 minutes, and I thought their goal was a handball, it was blatant, I’ve watched it back and the ref stood there and looked at it.

“It didn’t hit his knee, it hit his hand but there is nothing you can do about that, we can just concentrate on ourselves and I thought we were good value for at least a point tonight.

“The second goal was soft, but I don’t have issues with our lads, we are all disappointed and it is difficult to know what to say after a game like that, you want to chuck a comfort blanket around them when they’ve just been beaten. The only problem with the performance was that we have to deliver.”

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