Shrewsbury Town happy to spoil Fleetwood Town's Christmas trip
Jim O'Brien gave a wry smile as he admitted that Shrewsbury players enjoyed scuppering Fleetwood's Christmas plans.
The Cod Army are familiar foes of Town this season and Uwe Rosler's side will lock horns with Paul Hurst's Shrewsbury for a third time tonight,
Beyond that, the Lancashire outfit then make their second Greenhous Meadow visit of the season on January 2 – meaning the clubs will have met four times in under six weeks.
Tonight's tie at Highbury Stadium is an FA Cup second round replay where the winners are rewarded with a third round match at Bristol City.
But it's a fixture that Rosler's side neither wanted nor considered.
Fleetwood were due to head to Dublin following last Saturday's fixture with Walsall for their Christmas celebrations. But any ideas of jetting off were put on hold with the rescheduling of a replay.
"It's a little bit annoying when you've had two away trips to Fleetwood, it's like one road in and one road out isn't it?" O'Brien joked.
"No, it's part of football. We could've done without the replay having come off of travelling to Millwall but we'll look forward to it.
"We'll probably feel like we've been training with them for a few weeks because we know them that well.
"I think we're looking forward to this game more than they are in terms of I think they were supposed to have a Christmas do this weekend, so that got scrapped.
"Maybe that'll leave a bit of needle in it tonight!"
Town slumped to a 3-0 reversal at Fleetwood two weeks ago in the lowest point of manager Paul Hurst's reign to date, but looked far more assured after holding the Cod Army to a goalless draw at Greenhous Meadow 10 days ago,
O'Brien, whose most glamorous FA Cup memory is a 5-0 Etihad Stadium quarter-final drubbing against Manchester City while with Barnsley in 2013, maintains that it is always a pleasant break to feature in the competition. "A Cup run would be nice," he admitted.
"When you're not doing so well it's a nice distraction from the league.
"It can help you get a little bit of momentum going so if we can go to tonight and take Saturday's performance into it, along with the last game against Fleetwood, then I think we've got a good chance.
"This'll be the third time we've played them. We know what they're like and we'll be fed up with them come the new year.
"We know what to expect and so do they. It should be a decent clash."
The Scotland-born attacker, who was capped at youth team level by the Republic of Ireland, has struggled with an inconsistent start to life at Greenhous Meadow.
But in recent weeks he has found himself as Hurst's answer at right midfield, a position where he is more than happy to feature.
After injuries and a lack of consistent form kept him out of the starting line-up, the former Coventry man is relishing a run of games and regular involvement.
"I'm enjoying playing and hopefully I can put a run together because it's been a little bit stop-start for me," he added.
"I don't think I've seen the best of myself this season yet but hopefully I'm turning a corner.
"I maybe lost a little bit of intensity at the start because of my injury last year, but now I have a clear head and feel fresh."
