Shrewsbury Town (well, Lenny the Lion) get their hands on the FA Cup
FA Cup fever hit Shropshire today with the famous trophy taking in a tour of the county.
As part of the build up to next Monday's FA Cup clash between Shrewsbury Town and Manchester United hundreds of people are expected to get their own glimpse of the trophy, during its whistle-stop Shropshire tour.
Accompanied by its own bodyguards, the historic trophy is actually the fifth version of the cup and was created for the FA Cup Final in 2014.
During its tour the cup was visiting Shrewsbury Town's regional community hub in Ludlow, Shrewsbury Town's new community hub at the Greenhous Meadow and Lilleshall Sports Centre, before returning to the Meadow.
Jamie Edwards, head of Shrewsbury Town in the Community, said the club was thrilled to be hosting the cup ahead of next week's game.
He said: "I think its brilliant, for the FA Cup to be able to travel around Shropshire and give people the chance to see the world's most iconic cup is fantastic.
"There will be more than 100 children who will get the chance to see it at the hub and we will also have people coming in to see it, as well as sponsors who support the club, which is a nice way for us to repay their continued support.
"For the children particularly I think it will be a memory and a photo that will last for a lifetime. It is not every day that you have the FA Cup in your grasp."
Young fan Beau Mason was one of the youngsters getting close up to the famous trophy:
Mr Edwards said that the atmosphere is building at the club in anticipation of the big game.
He said: "It has been absolutely brilliant. It is one of those where it is quite a hard part of the season usually but to have a game as big as this, I hope it has landed at a really good time for the club. It gives everyone a lot of motivation to carry on doing the good work that they do."
The club has also revealed that due to a huge demand for programmes for the match that it will more than double the print run.
For normal games the club prints around 1,500 programmes, but with the visit of one of the world's highest profile clubs it has upped that number to 5,000.
West Mercia Police has also confirmed that Thames Valley Police will be providing horses from its mounted policing section for the occasion.
