Shrewsbury Town v Wolves FA Cup preview: Cup specialist Ryan Haynes plotting to take another Premier scalp

For a 23-year-old, the defender – who will likely be playing left wing-back tomorrow dealing with Wolves’ numerous pace merchants – has extensive pedigree in the competition, writes Lewis Cox.

He was a part of the Coventry team that reached the fifth round last season, albeit on the road back from a serious injury, including knocking out then Premier League Stoke City.

The Sky Blues’ dreams were ended by Brighton, Premier League newbies at the time, at that stage last term.

And while the Seagulls enjoyed a solid debut campaign – they were not pulling up the trees in the same manner of one of this season’s new sides, Wolves.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s men are a solid eighth, with more chance of sneaking into a European position than being sucked into the relegation zone. So they should take the FA Cup seriously. It should not be seen as a distraction, even with the visit of West Ham four days later. Nuno’s line-up against Liverpool in the previous round shows tomorrow’s visitors mean business.

Haynes, who joined from Coventry last summer, has impressed for Town in recent games and was a key part of the two ties against Stoke last time out. He knows what to expect from Wolves’ all-stars.

“They’re professional in what they do,” he said. “They’re going to go about things in a very professional way. I’m sure they’ll come into the game as if they’re playing Premier League opposition. It’s going to be a very hard game.”

Boss Sam Ricketts spoke of his Town side making an intense start and putting pressure on their visitors, who sit 54 places above them in English football’s pecking order.

Haynes added: “It’s the same as any game really, you want to get in the opposition’s faces, put them under pressure and be on the front foot.”

What isn’t the same as ‘any game’ will be the atmosphere at Montgomery Waters Meadow tomorrow.

The 9,875 capacity crowd – minus a few for television cameras – will create an electric atmosphere. It comes after Shrewsbury played in front of 10,000 at the 30,000 Bet365 Stadium in Stoke and 3,000 at the 17,300 Bloomfield Road in Blackpool.

On both occasions on the road, the home fans have been silent – in turmoil for differing reasons – but tucked away in the top corner have been travelling Salopians.

“They were strange, you obviously expect the home teams to make the noise but, for example at Stoke, we could hear the Shrewsbury fans more,” Haynes added.

“It’s only very good and there’s a very good away following, it’s nice to hear them in full voice.”

The clamour for Shrewsbury versus Wolves tickets has been the talking point of both sets of supporters this week. Many have been unfortunate to miss out.

One thing is for certain, the current crop of Town players have not witnessed anything like the noise that will hit them at 2.55pm tomorrow. Haynes continued: “It’s what every kid dreams of, walking out in the tunnel and you see the crowd and they all cheer.

“Of course, it’s going to feel different. At Blackpool last weekend there were very few people there and it does have a different feel to it. It’s going to be a very high-tempo game I imagine and everyone’s looking forward to it.”

Haynes played with Jack Grimmer at Coventry – an FA Cup hero in both sky blue and blue and amber.

“I’ve seen the celebrations and the pictures of it,” Haynes smiled with reference to Grimmer’s Sheffield Wednesday winner. “Jack’s a great lad – his goal got us started last year.

“Hopefully we can progress in this round like he took Shrewsbury through that round. You never know – football is a strange game.”

Likely Line-Ups

Wolves (352): Ruddy (GK); Bennett, Coady, Kilman; Doherty, Dendoncker, Gobbs-White, Saiss, Winagre; Traore, Cavaleiro.

Subs: Norris, Giles, Neves, Moutinho, Jota, Costa, Jiminez.

Opponents

The last time Wolves were this well fancied to win the FA Cup, Nuno Espirito Santo probably hadn’t even heard of the club.

Charles and Diana weren’t married, Aston Villa were the best team in the country and ‘Brexit’ was more likely to mean Britt Ekland moving back to Sweden.

Apart from a surprise run to the semi-finals under Mark McGhee in 1998, Wolves haven’t been among the competitions favourites since they twice reached the final four in 1979 and 1981 (when Nuno was just seven years old).

This season, though, they’re understandably being tipped for a decent run in the famous old competition, especially after dumping Liverpool out in the third round, albeit a severely-weakened Reds side.

In that 1979 run to the semis, they overcame a tricky test against Shrewsbury Town in the quarter-finals, winning 3-1 at Gay Meadow in a replay after Salop held them 1-1 at Molineux (in front of almost 41,000).

Back then they faced a Town team on their way to winning the old Division Three title under future Wolves boss Graham Turner, about to embark on a 10-year spell on the second tier, the most successful period in the club’s history.

Nuno took the Cup seriously with his team selection in the third round, something he hasn’t always done during his time there.

Against a motivated Shrewsbury side who have only lost twice at home in the league since August, he’ll surely need to do the same tomorrow.

With Wolves already virtually guaranteed another season of Premier League football, there is a pressure from fans to push for a trip to Wembley.

A league game against West Ham on Tuesday may mean there are some changes, but it’s expected Wolves will field a strong starting XI.

Morgan Gibbs-White, a former pupil at Thomas Telford School, could be one of those handed a chance to shine.

Dangerman

Quite simply, there is no quicker footballer around than Wolves' Adama Traore. Questions are instead about his end product and footballing brain.

If Nuno Espirito Santo opts to rotate a couple of his star forwards then expect former Barcelona flyer Traore to be involved and he could expose a Shrewsbury defence that is a little light on pace.

Traore, 22, should know he needs to take his chance.