John Ruddy hoping for a Wolves FA Cup run – and his first of his career

The Wolves goalkeeper has played for his country, played at the top level of English football for many seasons, been promoted to the Premier League three times and been in a Championship team of the season.

But what the 32-year-old had never done, before this month, is win a game in the FA Cup.

Ruddy, believe it or not, has only played four matches in the famous old competition, despite making his senior debut 15 years ago.

Two of those were for Norwich (defeats against Preston and Manchester City) and one was for Cambridge, who were dumped out by non-league Halifax in 2004.

No wonder he enjoyed being part of a Wolves team that beat Liverpool 2-1 in the third round earlier this month, thanks in no small part to a wonderful save he made from Xherdan Shaqiri's free-kick, to give him his first ever FA Cup victory.

"I haven't had the best record – this is the first time I've been past the third round!" Ruddy said.

"Admittedly I didn't play very many games at Norwich but I was at the club when we lost to non-league Luton and also at MK Dons in the cup.

"I'm well versed in how big a tie it is for lower league teams."

And of course Ruddy has more reason than most to be desperate for Wolves to progress in the FA Cup this season.

The keeper was a key part of Wolves' Championship title-winning success but hasn't kicked a ball in the Premier League so far, with Rui Patricio getting the nod between the sticks.

"That's another incentive," he added. "I know, realistically, my games this year are going to be in the cup.

"The more games we have, the better for me. It was nice to get through the Liverpool tie but if we don't do it tomorrow it doesn't count for anything."

Shrewsbury stand in Wolves' way today. The 6/1 outsiders will cause a big shock if they beat Nuno's team, but Ruddy knows that the last thing Wolves can be is complacent.

"It's what the FA Cup's all about, a lower league team against a Premier League team and to make it even better it's a local derby," he said.

"It would be good for us to have a really good cup run. It's up to us to make sure we come through the obstacles in our way.

"I don't think we're going to go down so we're in a position where we can have a good cup run as well as stabilise and be comfortable in the league."

Nuno's first game as Wolves boss on English soil was at Shrewsbury for a July 2017 pre-season friendly.

Wolves came in for some rough treatment that day and were soundly beaten 2-0. Ruddy remembers it well, but says tomorrow's game will be very different.

"It was really tough, they arguably outplayed us for large portions of that game, but they were a different Shrewsbury back then and we were a different Wolves too," he said.

"It's going to be a different challenge. You're probably not going to be able to pass the ball out from the back and keep possession, or rotate the ball side-to-side and dominate a game in a manner we're used to.

"Some teams will sit back and let you have the ball, Shrewsbury will be right up for it, they'll come at us from the start and we have to manage that within the game.

"If we have to change our approach slightly, so be it.

"It's a tight ground, fans on top of you, you hear every noise, every comment and every bit of banter!

"I personally love it, I started my career in the lower league and those grounds are fantastic.

"Hopefully we'll come through it unscathed."

If they do, Ruddy will start going some way to improving his FA Cup record.