Preview: Shrewsbury v Wolves: Will the Wolves tame the Shrews?

Wolves correspondent Tim Spiers previews the clash.

Preamble

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 (currently sixth favourites) 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.

Tomorrow, in a classic David v Goliath FA Cup tie, they take on a former Wolves player and coach, Sam Ricketts, who is in the very early stages of trying to recreate something similar.

He’s no stranger to that, having been in on the ground floor of Wolves’ transformation from League One to the top half of the Premier League, when he was captain of Kenny Jackett’s 2014 title-winners.#

A key figure in a dressing room that had become accustomed to turmoil in the previous two years, Ricketts was arguably one of the best signings made by the club in the past decade.

“It was the start of rebuilding the club, with the fanbase after back-to-back relegations, it kind of brought everyone back together,” Ricketts, who left an academy coaching job at Molineux last summer to make an impressive start to managerial life with Wrexham, before joining Shrewsbury last month, said.

“There were players who fans could see cared about the club and gave their all in every game whether we won or lost, everyone certainly gave their all.

“It was a year that brought everyone back together and allowed everyone to enjoy their football after two disappointing years.”

Wolves have moved on considerably since then under Fosun and currently sit a lofty eighth in the Premier League. But Ricketts believes there are weaknesses he can exploit tomorrow.

“Every team has their frailties, nobody is unbeatable, it just gets harder the bigger team you’re playing,” he said.

“Leicester were unfortunate (at Molineux on Saturday).

“I will watch the whole game and watch games against other teams who have caused Wolves problems to see how they’ve done it. I’ve got a pretty good idea of how they did it.”

Nuno returns to the scene of his first game on English soil as Wolves boss. His team were outfought and kicked lumps out of when losing 2-0 at Montgomery Waters Meadow in a 2017 pre-season friendly – a 'welcome to England' if ever there was one.

The head coach took the Cup seriously with his team selection in the third round.

Against a motivated Shrewsbury side who’ve only lost twice at home in the league since August, he’ll surely need to do the same tomorrow if Wolves are to remain one of the Cup favourites.

The opposition

Tom Leach gave us the lowdown on tomorrow's opponents.

Team news

Recent signing Dave Edwards misses out on another reunion with the club he spent nine-and-a-half-years at, thanks to a groin injury.

Lenell John-Lewis is out for a year with an ACL injury but midfielder and key man Shaun Walley could play for the first time in six weeks.

For Wolves, Willy Boly misses out again for the second game of his three-match suspension.

Injury-wise, unless anything has cropped up this week, Wolves will have a clean bill of health, not for the first time this season.

Likely line ups

Shrewsbury (3-4-3): Arnold; Beckles, Waterfall, Sadler; Bolton, Grant, Norburn, Haynes; Docherty, Okenabirhie, Laurent. Subs: Charles-Cook, Sears, Vincelot, Gilliead, Whalley, Eisa, Amadi-Holloway

Wolves (3-5-2): Ruddy; Bennett, Coady, Saiss; Doherty, Dendoncker, Gibbs-White, Neves, Vinagre; Traore, Cavaleiro. Subs: Norris, Kilman, Otto, Moutinho, Costa, Jota, Jimenez.

Key players

Shrewsbury – Greg Docherty

The energetic Scottish midfielder, 22, has been a huge hit on loan from Rangers. Scored seven goals and generally a trigger for Town playing well, while linking with 11-goal top scorer Fejiri Okenabirhie.

Wolves – Adama Traore

Traore has only made two sub appearances since his great showing at Spurs. Likely to start and needs to impress with more than just his pace.

The bosses

Sam Ricketts: "Wolves have obviously got a lot more strengths than weaknesses, but they’ve still got weaknesses. They’re not being stupid with money, they’ve not been really frivolous with it. They’ve been quite cautious in everything that they’re doing and fair play to them. They’ve got a way of playing now, a real identity and it’s proving very successful.”

Nuno Espirito Santo: "It’s a trophy and each game is a final. It’s part of the history for the club. It’s a trophy. We want to fight for it. We can’t see the future (in the tournament)– first we have to play.

Form

Shrewsbury DWLLD

Jan 19: Blackpool 0 Shrewsbury 0

Jan 15: Stoke City 2 (Campbell 20, 36) Shrewsbury 3 (Bolton 71, Okenabirhie pen 77, Laurent 81) *FA Cup

Jan 12: Shrewsbury 0 Charlton 3 (Taylor 26, Pratley 54, Ahearne-Grant pen 79)

Jan 8: Port Vale 1 (Pope 83) Shrewsbury 1 (Sears 63), 4-3 on pens *Checkatrade Trophy

Jan 5: Shrewsbury 1 (Norburn pen 45+4) Stoke City 1 (Crouch 78) *FA Cup

Wolves WLWLW

Jan 19: Wolves 4 (Jota 4, 64, 90+3, Bennett 12) Leicester 3 (Gray 47, Coady OG 51, Morgan 87)

Jan 14: Manchester City 3 (Jesus 10, pen 39, Coady OG 78) Wolves 0

Jan 7: Wolves 2 (Jimenez 38, Neves 55) Liverpool 1 (Origi 51) *FA Cup

Jan 2: Wolves 0 Crystal Palace 2 (Ayew 83, Milivojevic 90+5)

Dec 29: Tottenham 1 (Kane 22) Wolves 3 (Boly 72, Jimenez 83, Costa 87)

Past five meetings

Mar 15, 2014 (L1): Wolves 0 Shrewsbury 0

Sep 21, 2013 (L1): Shrewsbury 0 Wolves 1 (Sako pen 84)

Oct 8, 1991 (League Cup): Shrewsbury 3 Wolves 1 (Steele)

Sep 24, 1991 (League Cup): Wolves 6 (Steele, Birch 2, Bull 2, Burke)

Apr 6, 1985 (Ch): Wolves 0 Shrewsbury 1

Referee

Roger East (Wiltshire)

Top level ref who has yet to show a red card this season.

Taken charge of 15 matches and flashed 52 yellows, including four during Wolves' 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace at the start of the month.

Match odds

Shrewsbury 6/1, draw 16/5, Wolves 1/2