John Askey to put out strong Shrewsbury side against Salford City in FA Cup
Boss John Askey has vowed to play a strong Shrewsbury side to avoid an upset in tomorrow’s FA Cup first-round tie against Salford City.
Askey is preparing his side for a potential banana skin against the high-profile Ammies, jointly owned by Manchester United’s Class of 92 and Singapore billionaire Peter Lim.
The Montgomery Waters Meadow boss saw the pressure on him lifted with last week’s last-gasp 2-1 win at AFC Wimbledon and is keen to avoid an upset against the National League high-fliers.
Askey is not planning on making vast changes to his Salop line-up and will use a full-strength squad. Shrews will then make changes for Tuesday night’s Checkatrade Trophy tie at Crewe Alexandra.
“The FA Cup is an important competition for us,” said the Town boss.
“I don’t think the supporters would be too happy if I were to put out what they’d consider a lesser team.
“We want to win every game and obviously the FA Cup is a big competition.”
Winger Shaun Whalley is Town’s only current injury absentee. The popular wideman picked up a calf injury against Sunderland three weeks ago and is facing another couple of weeks on the sidelines.
Fellow flier Abo Eisa is over a knee problem and was back in Askey’s team for the recent trip to Oxford, where he played a few minutes from the bench.
Eisa is expected to be involved tomorrow and Tuesday. Graham Alexander’s Salford are 16 games unbeaten in non-league’s top tier. Ahead of last weekend’s trip to Kingsmeadow, Askey admitted his Town future rested on picking up three points.
He has since been publicly backed twice by Town chief executive Brian Caldwell.
Askey is happy to be judged against expectations of where Shrewsbury should find themselves.
When asked if wins allow him more breathing space, the boss replied: “Who knows?
“I’ll always be honest. It’s up to other people to judge me. All I know is the situation I’ve come into, where Shrewsbury is as a football club.
“If people think we should be doing a lot better then it’s up to people to judge.
“I know that we’ve assembled a reasonable team and we’ve played the majority of teams at the top of the league and more than held our own.
“So hopefully, as the season goes on, we keep improving and the results come.”
