Shrewsbury Manager Ainsworth Embraces Underdog Role Ahead of Challenging Debut

Gareth Ainsworth, who previously scored against Blues as a player at St Andrew’s for Port Vale in April 1998, faces a formidable challenge in his inaugural managerial match for Shrewsbury Town this weekend. Shrewsbury Town, currently at the bottom of the league with only two victories, is set to host an expensively reinforced Birmingham City team in a televised Saturday lunchtime fixture. Birmingham City has suffered only one defeat in their last 13 matches and is considered a favourite for the League One title, despite presently holding second place behind Wycombe Wanderers, Ainsworth’s former team. This encounter appears to be a significant mismatch based on current standings. Nevertheless, Shrewsbury possesses a manager who embraces the idea of fairytales. Having assumed his role a week prior, Ainsworth has acknowledged that his comprehensive strategy for Oteley Road will likely require time to implement fully. Despite this, he maintains confidence in achieving some level of immediate progress against Chris Davies’ Blues. Speaking to BBC Radio Shropshire, Ainsworth stated, “Believe me, over time, we will be a better outfit. 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.” He further added, “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.” George Lloyd currently stands as Shrewsbury’s top goalscorer with three goals. Since Chris Davies assumed management in June, Blues have already secured two decisive victories against Shrewsbury at their home ground, initially in pre-season and subsequently with a 4-0 win in the EFL Trophy. Birmingham’s total of 24 league goals across 13 matches significantly surpasses the 13 goals scored by Salop, with eight of those coming from their sole two league triumphs: a 3-0 home win against Orient and a 5-3 away victory at Crawley. However, with Ainsworth making his debut as manager, the visiting team is not taking anything for granted. For the immediate future, the new Salop boss is primarily pledging that his squad will aim to pose a significant challenge for players such as Jay Stansfield, Alfie May, Tomoki Iwata, and their teammates. He further commented, “Birmingham spent a lot of money and have a certain way of playing. 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,” he explained. “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.” Ainsworth concluded, “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’s comments were made during an interview with Owen Taylor of BBC Radio Shropshire.