Gareth Ainsworth Makes Birmingham City Claim And “Fires” Warning To Shrewsbury Players

Gareth Ainsworth Makes Birmingham City Claim And “Fires” Warning To Shrewsbury Players

Gareth Ainsworth ‘firmly believes’ bottom-of-the-table Shrewsbury Town can spring an almighty surprise on Saturday to beat Birmingham City.

The new Shrewsbury manager starts his tenure with arguably League One’s most difficult fixture on paper. Blues have only lost once in the league this season and have taken 30 points from their opening 13 matches.

Chris Davies’ side dismantled Shrewsbury 4-0 in the EFL Trophy last month, despite fielding a weakened team, and also defeated them 2-0 in a pre-season friendly in July. Everything points towards another Blues win at The Croud Meadow but Ainsworth is hoping for a new manager bounce.

He said: “We may have a little bit of pain but also we may have some magical moments and I firmly believe we can win that game on Saturday. It’s 11 against 11. It’s Birmingham, yes they have spent a lot of money, yes they’re a big club with a Premier League history and all that, but we’ve all been in teams where you’ve beat somebody

“It’s not impossible, no way. I’m very much fairytale guy, and underdog guy, and there’s no reason we can’t win the game on Saturday. We’ll be going for it.”

Blues have averaged 70 percent possession in League One matches this term, compared to Shrewsbury’s 44 percent, and Ainsworth isn’t expecting that to change on Saturday. He wants to see a wholehearted, committed display from his new players and has warned them what will happen if he doesn’t.

Ainsworth added: “There are teams that are going to dominate the ball but disrupting them is big for me. I’m not very concerned with 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 teams in the league for possession and there won’t be much changing there, but it’s what we do when we get the ball and how we make it difficult for Birmingham on the ball.

“When you spend that kind of money, you’re going to get good players, you’re going to get good physical specimens who have played at a higher level but I have a group of players who want to grab hold of something, who have all got the same sized hearts as the Birmingham players

If they can be strong on Saturday and think we have a chance and we can do it, that’s all I want from them. If I see that, I know I’ve got a chance this season. If I think they’re going out believing they’re beat already, they won’t last long.”