'Glimmer of hope': Ollie Westbury on Shrewsbury boss Gareth Ainsworth's pre-Exeter press conference

Shropshire Star

Ollie Westbury brings you all the latest from Gareth Ainsworth's press conference ahead of Shrewsbury Town's trip to Exeter City. Salop remain eight points from safety at the foot of League One - having drawn 0-0 with fellow strugglers Bristol Rovers on Tuesday evening. Ollie discusses all the latest from Ainsworth ahead of the game, and how the Salop manager has cited the turnaround in form of other sides down the bottom when discussing Salop's diminishing survival chances

Transcript

00:00I'm at Shrewsbury Town, Sundorn Castle training base and we have just spoken to

00:04head coach Gareth Ainsworth. You can see the preparations for town training this

00:09afternoon or this morning are kind of taking place behind me. It is a beautiful

00:13sunny day, not a cloud in the sky and that weather has kind of got Gareth

00:18Ainsworth in an upbeat mood. Well, when is he not in an upbeat mood? But he was

00:22incredibly positive this morning during his pre-match press conference. I must

00:27admit I left the crowd meadow on Tuesday night pretty much 100% convinced that

00:32Shrewsbury's chances of surviving League One relegation this season were

00:36completely and utterly over. But having listened to him talk for nigh on 25

00:40minutes about the team and about his ambitions, you feel like there may still

00:45be a glimmer of hope if they can get on a run. He compared his sides like

00:50Cambridge and Burton who have gone on runs, really successful runs in League One

00:55this season and picked up back-to-back-to-back-to-back wins and

00:58that is the aim. He will never give up regardless of how kind of bleak the

01:03situation looks. So Shrewsbury back on the road this weekend, back to Exeter,

01:08a place that I think I've been there two times and I've never seen a goal.

01:12So I'm hoping that there is a goal because it's a long way to go. So let's

01:16keep our fingers crossed that there is some goalmouth action. A third

01:19clean sheet of the season was kept on Tuesday and some comments from Gareth

01:24Ainsworth about the solidity of his Shrewsbury side. That is one of the

01:29things that they have really improved since he came to the crowd meadow back

01:34at the end of November. They have made themselves so much more difficult to beat.

01:37There have been a couple of moments in a couple of games in the first

01:41few when he arrived but since then, I think it's just the game against

01:45Preethpur United last weekend that they've lost by more than a goal since

01:48the middle of December. So he's pleased with that but obviously he is aware that

01:53whatever you take away, whenever you take something away, you make some...

01:57Sorry, I'm getting my words mixed up. Whenever you make something better, you

02:01can potentially take something away in another area. So other things

02:05interesting to come out of the press conference. Fonzo Ojo was ill actually

02:08on Tuesday night but he played through it. He said to his manager that he

02:12wanted to do the hard yards for the team. So Fonzo Ojo was a little bit

02:15under the weather for one reason or another. Gareth Ainsworth wasn't

02:19actually aware of it until after the match. So that's something that's come

02:23out of the press conference this morning. 20 points from 20 games

02:29Shrewsbury have taken since Gareth Ainsworth came to the club. There has

02:32been an immeasurable improvement but perhaps the difficulty has been the fact

02:36that they had too much to do when they came in and that is why they

02:41have 11 games left and they are eight points adrift at the bottom of

02:44League One. A result on Saturday is imperative. We are past must-win

02:50territory. Shrewsbury have to go to Exeter and they have to start getting

02:54results because coming up are some difficult games against Birmingham City

02:57and Wycombe Wanderers. So Shrewsbury have got to start getting results if they

03:01want to stay on the season. For all your reaction, head to ShropshireDome.com

Category

Transcript

Recommended