Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury v Salford FA Cup preview: John Askey not deterred by weight of expectation

It is a measure of Shrewsbury’s task tomorrow that their ambitious visitors from the National League have the Championship in their sights.

Published

Everybody knows Salford City are the media darlings and ‘glamour’ of the ever-more professional semi-professional game.

But Salford still have to do the business. It’s alright having a TV documentary charting your rapid progress, but not if you lose every week.

And the Ammies are showing no sign of their rapid progress slowing down.

Shrewsbury boss John Askey said, in reaction to the draw handing Town a home tie against a lower-ranked side, that he sees it as a great chance to progress.

It’s a treacherous tie for Town. A defeat, to many, will be met by the predictable reaction ‘you can’t even beat a Conference team!’

Clearly this is no usual David v Goliath, minnows v mighty, milkman v professional FA Cup first-round tie.

If Town get through, as the two divisions difference and casual onlookers would suggest they should, then they have merely done what is expected of them. Salford, 16 unbeaten in the National League under former Scunthorpe boss Graham Alexander, will see themselves as underdogs (despite reports of a big budget).

“They’re the team spending the most money, they’re looking to progress, moving to a new ground and training facilities,” was Askey’s assessment ahead of the two clubs’ first-ever meeting.

“I think they hope within a few years they’ll be in at least the Championship, it’s a club going forward, hopefully not going forward in the FA Cup tomorrow.

“They can (progress) with the backing they’ve got as long as it stays there, that’s what it’s about. You look in every league and usually the teams at the top have the biggest budgets.

“You might get the odd one, like Leicester City, that’s a bit of a fantasy. But the majority of the teams at the top have the money.”

Salford, whose presence in Shropshire could bring Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes or Ryan Giggs to Montgomery Waters Meadow come lunchtime tomorrow, raised eyebrows in the summer.

National League North promotion-winning Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley were ushered out. Then the Ammies spent big on stars from higher up the pyramid. In came Rory Gaffney, Nathan Pond, Chris Neal and Danny Lloyd from League One and, remarkably, seasoned Scottish Premiership stalwart Adam Rooney from Aberdeen.

They also tempted Danny Whitehead, who starred for Askey in winning the National League title with Macclesfield.

“Their budget would be closer to ours, I’d have thought, you’ve only got to look at the players,” added Askey.

“You don’t go and play in the National League for less money. The majority of those can play second or first division, they’re going to want more to play in the Conference. They’re big spenders who have got ambition. It’s still a great opportunity for us and we are not worried about them, it’s all about us.

“We’ve proved if we perform we can more than match teams in our league so we should be able to match a Conference club.”

Askey is expected to use close to a full-strength XI for the first-round tie.

The boss knows he will be able to rotate his ranks for the Checkatrade Trophy clash at Crewe, a little more than 48 hours later.