Gareth Ainsworth could not have asked for a much tougher start to his latest managerial job with Shrewsbury Town this weekend.
Bottom-of-the-table Town, with two wins to their name, in a televised Saturday lunchtime kick-off at home to an expensively refurbished Birmingham City side who have lost just once in 13 games and remain League One title favourites despite currently sitting second to Ainsworth’s old club Wycombe Wanderers.
It looks a mismatch on paper. But thankfully Town have a boss who believes in fairytales.
After taking over a week ago, Ainsworth has already admitted that his masterplan at Oteley Road might take time. But that does not mean he does not have the belief to expect some sort of immediate improvement against Chris Davies’ Blues.
“Believe me, over time, we will be a better outfit,” Ainsworth told BBC Radio Shropshire. “100%, I guarantee that. In the meantime we’ve got to try and get some points on the board. We may have a little bit of pain, but also we may have some magical moments and I firmly believe we can win on Saturday.
“It’s 11 against 11. It’s Birmingham City. Yes, they’ve spent a lot of money, yes they’re a big club, yes there’s Premier League history and all that, but we’ve all been in teams where you’ve beat somebody. It’s not impossible.
“I’m very much a fairytale guy, an underdog guy. There’s no reason we can’t win on Saturday. We’ll be going for it.”
Blues have already twice won convincingly at Shrewsbury since Davies took charge in June – first in pre-season and then 4-0 in the EFL Trophy. And their tally of 24 league goals in 13 games dwarfs the 13 scored by Salop, of which eight came in two games – the 3-0 home win over Orient and the 5-3 victory at Crawley, their only two league victories.
But, with Ainsworth taking charge for the first time, the visitors are assuming nothing. And all the new Salop boss is really promising for now is that his team will try to make it difficult for Jay Stansfield, Alfie May, Tomoki Iwata and co.
“Birmingham spent a lot of money and have a certain way of playing,” he added. “Chris Davies worked under Ange for Spurs in the Premier League.
“So how do you approach a game where you know you’re not going to have a lot of the ball? Instinctively as a footballer you’re always going to want to chase the ball down but it’s about having that discipline.
“There are teams that are going to dominate the ball, but it’s about disrupting the good players on the ball. That’s big for me.
“It’s probably been one of my key aspects of my career. I’m not very concerned about having the majority of the possession, I want the majority of the goals. That’s what wins games.
“As the stats read, Shrewsbury are in the bottom three or four of possession in this league. There won’t be too much change there, but it’s what we do when we get the ball, and how we get it – and how we can make it difficult for Birmingham.
“I have a group of players in there who have the same size hearts as Birmingham’s players. If they can be strong and think ‘you know what, we have a chance here’, that’s all I want from them.
“If I see that, I know I’ve got a chance. If I think they’re going out believing they’re beat already, they won’t last long. I need to see players who believe they can win.”
Gareth Ainsworth was talking to BBC Radio Shropshire’s Owen Taylor
