We have met before: Town 1 Man United 8!

The two sides will meet in a competitive fixture for the first time when United visit for a fifth round tie on Monday week, writes Craig Birch.

The BT Sport cameras will be broadcasting from an almost-certain packed house live, enticed by a cup shock in a competition which certainly merits their suspicions.

Much has been made of the fact that this is uncharted territory for the two clubs, but they have locked horns under the guise of a pre-season friendly.

A United outfit have visited the Greenhous Meadow, in the summer of 2011, but it was a reserve side led by Warren Joyce who made the trip.

Town came out on top 2-1 after leading by two goals at the break, James Collins and Sean McAllister on target. Danny Drinkwater pulled one back five minutes after half-time.

The last time a United first-team were in Shrewsbury was on 30 July 2000, when Sir Alex Ferguson's star-studded line up arrived at the old Gay Meadow.

The defending Premier League champions were taking on a Town line-up that had been saved from relegation to non-league by boss Kevin Ratcliffe earlier that year.

The deadlock was broken in style by Nicky Butt after just two minutes, who rifled a shot from outside of the area past Paul Edwards with the goalkeeper at full stretch.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, so often United's super-sub in those days, showed his class to double the advantage after latching onto a ball from Quinton Fortune.

'The Baby Faced Assassin' deftly prodded the ball past a defender to go one-on-one with Edwards, who was nutmegged as the ball was slotted through his legs.

Edwards then had to push away a low 20-yard drive away at this near post, before Town halved the deficit when Chris Freestone nodded home.

The striker was all smiles after nodding past Mark Bosnich in the United goal, steering his header away from the Australian, who was rooted to the spot.

The home fans at the Meadow loved that one, most of them clad in sunglasses basking in the summer sunshine. United then turned on the style, though.

Jesper Blomqvist's cross from the left was headed across goal by Teddy Sheringham, for Solskjaer to connect with an overhead kick that looped over a diving Edwards.

That made it 3-1 at the break and United put their hosts to the sword in the second-half, starting when Sheringham headed home Fortune's cross from the left byline past replacement goalkeeper Ian Dunbavin.

United youngster Michael Clegg, than scored the fifth with a move he started himself, Solskjaer and Sheringham swapping passes before playing in Clegg to finish past Dunbavin.

Fortune made it 6-1 after dusting himself down to score from the spot, drilling the ball into the net after he was upended in the box.

He then bagged his second - joining Solskjaer on a brace - after picking up a stray pass across defence to race through on goal.

With the visitors throwing on more of 'Fergie's Fledglings,' David Healy completed the rout with the eighth strike from Alex Notman's pull back.

Let's hope this nightmare scenario doesn't happen again at the 'new' Greenhous Meadow.

If it did, it would be the first time they have lost a competitive game by seven goals in almost 52 years, since crashing 7-0 to Bristol Rovers on 21 March 1964.

Mellon's men did, of course, lost 7-1 to Chesterfield in League One last month, and the Town boss' actions spoke louder then words as he undertook a drastic January transfer revamp.

This isn't the United of old, so they might well fancy their chances. Don't concede eight and you'll stand a much better chance.