"My message will be the same to the players" - Rob Edwards on Wolves approach to Shrewsbury FA Cup clash

The League Two strugglers make the short trip down the M54 in poor recent form, while Wolves sit bottom of the Premier League but with some added momentum after going three games unbeaten and finally winning in the top flight this season.

Edwards, who hinted that he will not rotate his squad too much, is desperate for a win to continue Wolves' improved trajectory.

He said: “We want to keep the momentum. Definitely. 

"That’s what football is about and when you’ve got it, you want to try and keep it. 

"It’s not something that you can just click your fingers and get it going. It’s taken us a number of weeks to get to this point, and we want to try and keep that momentum. It’s really important for us right now."

On taking Shrewsbury lightly, Edwards added: “We’ve got to make sure there’s none of that at all. We treat the game exactly the same as we treat any game in the Premier League, and it’s so important we do that. My message will be the same to the players.

“The players need to make sure we respect that, because we are not in a position where we can take our foot off the gas in any game at all, so that will be our message. We have to try and keep this little bit of momentum that we’ve got going, so we’ll be taking the game very seriously.

“We will make mistakes, that’s inevitable in the game, and there’ll be an expectation on us that we’ve probably not had for a long, long time, so we have to be able to deal with that. If we show our levels then we know we can win the game, but we have to make sure we turn up and respect Shrewsbury.

“We see it all the time that teams playing in the leagues below can raise their level, they can enjoy the game, there’s a freshness, and there’s a different feel for them because they feel they can go out and play, because the pressure is off them.

“We need to make sure that we do things right, and it’ll be great to have the supporters on side. But all I’m thinking about is winning the game and preparing the players in the best way possible.”

Telford-born Edwards has some personal links to Shrewsbury having played their briefly at the end of his career, while his cousin Sean Parrish is a first team coach at Salop.

Parrish also spent a decade working in Wolves' academy, at one point alongside Edwards, as well as during his time as head coach at Telford United.

“My last ever professional football match as a player was for Shrewsbury on loan," Edwards said.

"I grew up in Telford until I was about 14, and it’s an interesting game for us. There’s lots of links, both personally and for a lot of people around it, because obviously it’s a fairly local game for us, so it’s an interesting one and one we’re looking forward to as well.

“Not just because it’s the FA Cup, it’s a big competition and it’s something different from the league as well, but because we feel like we’re in a good moment, we’re playing pretty well, and we want to keep this momentum going.

“It’ll be strange because Sean and I have worked closely together in a number of different roles here and at Telford, when we did the year there as well, so it will be weird, but we’ve missed each other a few times, and we’re probably never going to speak about the game anyway, so it’s probably best not to talk before and then we can catch up again afterwards.

“But it’ll be funny seeing him in the other dugout, and looking forward to seeing him. There’s a bit of banter going back and forth, but I think everyone’s probably thinking about staying out of it until afterwards.”