Sam Ricketts hoping for another Shrewsbury FA Cup adventure

Town returned to winning ways after a five-match winless run with Charlie Daniels and Brad Walker netting from distance in the second period against the League Two high-flyers.

A rare win at Abbey Stadium, their first since 1974, meant Shrewsbury avoided a first round exit in the FA Cup for the seventh season running, as Ricketts hopes to replicate the two runs to the fourth round under his stewardship.

The welcome progression and clean sheet comes as a boost after the crucial league late show against Burton in midweek.

"The attitude by the players has been exemplary. It took us 10 games to get the luck in midweek and that came after 99 minutes through hard work," Ricketts said.

"We wanted to capitalise on that, take another step forward and hopefully it's the start of another Cup run.

"It wasn't a corner, I've seen it back, but we capitalised on the first thing that's gone for us this year.

"We came up against a good side playing very well in their league full of confidence and freedom, you could see we were a bit anxious in wanting to win because they are not routine at the moment.

"But to come away to a side who are doing very well showed an awful lot of good character and quality."

Town were able to welcome back Dave Edwards from injury and the midfielder played much of the 90 minutes as Ricketts worked a new 3-4-3 formation.

An even first half could have gone either way as the hosts, flying high in League Two but without injured prolific duo Paul Mullin and Joe Ironside, forced Harry Burgoyne into one notable instinctive save to deny Robbie Cundy from a corner.

Town had efforts of their own but edged ahead less than two minutes into the second period through Daniels' first goal for the club, a fierce low drive from 22 yards.

The U's struggled in response, threatening only through Luke Hannant from distance.

And, as the game became stretched in the final stages, midfielder Walker - who played much of the contest in defence - sealed the visitors' progression in style with a 30-yard rocket that flew into the top left corner.

Ricketts said of his side's new set-up: "To be fair we only had a few days to work on a new shape, probably only a day, you could see elements of it were very good.

"When we had the ball we hurt them. They had it around halfway and we had to be patient in those areas but it's good to get through to the next round.

"(they were) two excellent goals and it's nothing less than the players deserved."

On the welcome return to fitness of three members of his squad - with 10 having been sidelined in a recent injury crisis - the boss added: "To be honest we pressed fast-forward with a few on return from injuries because we've been so lacking.

"We're still lacking some very key players but it was great to have Edo back, he's only done a session-and-a-half and you can see the impact on the team he has with his experience and knowhow and quality.

"We could welcome Shaun Whalley back to the bench if I really needed him. I didn't want to use him but he's ahead of schedule. Luckily we didn't have to use him or risk him.

"Matty Millar has worked extremely hard so it was good to give him a few minutes."

Sean Goss, who has been out of favour this season and one of the players not registered for league action under the new salary cap squad limit rules, was included for a rare outing on the bench.

Ricketts has previously said the midfielder and right-back Donald Love were 'out of favour.

He said: "Gossy's attitude has been exemplary. He understands the situation but he's trained well and done everything.

"This is a competition where the 22-man rule isn't applicable so it meant we could use Gossy today. It was good to have him around.

"It's unfortunate we're stuck in a situation where we can't use all the players for league games as much as we want."