Bernard McNally: Cup fever is growing again at Shrewsbury

We went up to Valley Parade in the week and got the job done with very minimal fuss.

Bradford away is always a tough game, I remember my experiences with Shrewsbury and West Brom there, to go to West Yorkshire and win on a freezing cold Tuesday is a great effort, especially with their home record.

Round by round your desire in the competition grows. It’s a big one now with Mansfield coming down to our place, but we can’t take home advantage for granted.

If it goes well then we’ll be counting down the days until January and hope for another clash of the titans against one of the big boys.

The FA Cup is marvellous for teams like ourselves.

You think of more recent years with the Everton tie, Manchester United, and last season as well, these are games you want to play in.

You’ve got to make sure you get through your Bradfords and your Mansfields to earn those glamour ties. But I think we look in a good position.

It was nice to see Dave Edwards score again. I’ve said numerous times he will grow into this role within the squad.

He seems to be getting back to what we were expecting from him. We have to remind ourselves he had the long injury at Reading and then a bad one over the summer. I believe there’s a little bit of momentum growing with Sam, the team and the way we play.

We talk about consistency but it’s all about improving and we’re doing that. It looks like it could be a good year for us.

We’re built on this impressive defence and now we’re getting results. People are starting to chip in with goals, a few from midfield. Maybe we’re now at a stage where there’s a self-belief in the side? That we can go and do something. It appears that way.

Valley Parade was another big step for the players and Sam.

Next up we’re back to League One and Saturday’s visit of Bristol Rovers is 11th versus 10th.

The table is looking pretty good at the moment. If we can keep ourselves together and shut up shop at the back, then we’ll keep ticking over. We’ll create opportunities, I’m sure we will. And it looks like we’re starting to take them.

A couple of league wins and we could be on the cusp of a play-off positions, and we’ve only lost once in 10 games now.

If we can find that consistency and ruthlessness in the league then it could be exciting times ahead and we could be mixing it near the top.

Sam won’t be getting carried away, but momentum is shifting with us and long may it continue on to Saturday and beyond.