Bernard McNally: FA Cup will do Shrewsbury Town good

It's a Cup tie and anything can happen. Paul Hurst will be hoping they can give a much improved performances to that at Fleetwood a couple of weeks ago,

Any kind of win will generate confidence and guide them upwards. They're heavily involved in the bottom four battle and need points as soon as possible, but the FA Cup can still be a welcome reprieve.

Again it was apparent in the goalless draw against Port Vale that the fans are behind Paul and that's great news. It's another game at home that they haven't lost.

They are yet to concede at home and have four clean sheets from seven games. Those are the little things the manager is clinging to.

The Cup does cheer everybody up and to get a win would help no end.

It wasn't particularly good to hear Paul's comments that things have been a little quiet with the group.

With a new manager you usually get a fresh impetus and the feeling that all the players are on an equal level.

It's a concern but maybe if they can start picking up wins – starting in the FA Cup – that can help the squad's self-confidence.

There does seem to have been an erosion of self-belief, if it's that quiet, because they've had some OK results under the new manager. Even when they went to Sheffield United and lost with nine men – you'd expect to lose 7-1 or something.

I had a couple of seasons with the Town where we struggled in the equivalent of the Championship, the old Division Two. We'd get to the last game or two at the end of the season after struggling and the great thing was when you did secure your safety it was celebrated as if you'd won the FA Cup, it was fantastic.

There are times when you do feel at a low ebb and that's when you really must stay together and believe in yourselves.

Graham Turner was very good at helping us when we were low and Chic Bates had a great couple of years doing it too.

I probably took it into the lower level I managed. 'The world's against us'; 'backs against the wall' and 'we have to get ourselves out of this'.

Paul will be thinking about the players he can target in the January window and that is always interesting in terms of how his players will react.

It may well be the prospect of being left out in January that is causing players to be quiet. It's funny how they react. There will be one or two that may roll their sleeves up but the other side to it could be players thinking 'that's it now, we're on our way out'.

I know that fans are enjoying Paul's straight-talking nature, particularly after the Fleetwood defeat. There will come a point where he'll have to back his players and it's having that balance. He'll already have a feel for that. He knows when you have to be more diplomatic and when it's time for brutal honesty.