Life of Riley is built on the cup memories

Five years later the attacking full-back is planning to use the same competition to help build on his impressive start to life as a Shrewsbury player, writes Lewis Cox.

Riley graduated through the Bolton academy and there were high hopes for the lad from Salford as he broke into the-then Premier League side.

"I remember making my debut for Bolton against Macclesfield in that, so there are fairly fond memories about it," said the 24-year-old, who signed for boss Micky Mellon from Bury this summer.

"It means quite a lot if you get a good cup run, you can draw some really big teams and everybody wants to do well in the cup – don't they?

"It's good for revenue and things like that, so we want to do well.

"We fancy our chances. Huddersfield have a very good manager and have bought some good players and I think they'll do really well this year – but we'll take our performance from Saturday into tonight.

"You go into every game wanting to win, that is the mentality of the manager and we're no different.

"Even during the pre-season friendlies he was saying the same!

"It'll be a good test, players in League One want to make the step up to the Championship so it'll be a good test individually and collectively."

Riley is open and honest about his game and insists that he is seeking to become a more rounded footballer after spending a lot of his early career thinking mainly about attacking.

"I'm quite a quiet lad, I just try and get on with my own job really; as I play a few more games my personal performances will get better," he said.

"I'm trying to work on my weaknesses here with Jacko (assistant Mike Jackson) and the manager – which are probably defensively – to make my game into an all-round full-back rather than just an attacking one.

"I still see myself as a young player, at 24 I'm quite young and there's still room for improvement for me personally.

"With someone like Jacko, he's good defensively, a very good coach and I'm trying to take many things from him in my game.

"A massive part of my game is going forward and getting assists. I played as a winger a couple of times and as a centre-half, but am predominantly a right-back.

"I was 16 or 17 when I was pushed back from right wing.

"When I spoke to Micky, I kind of knew that (attacking full-backs) was the way he wanted to play football so it fits nicely into my game.

"That's an aim (assists) – I got a few assists last year, but I want to try and double that this year."

Riley was familiar with a couple of the Salop squad before checking into Greenhous Meadow; he was alongside Junior Brown and former Town striker Tyrone Barnett on loan at Oxford United but reserved his highest praise for former Bury team-mate Adam El-Abd.

"As a back four we kept something like 15 out of 20 clean sheets. I know his game and he knows mine, he's a great leader," said Riley.

"He's whole-hearted, he's a fantastic fella off and on the pitch, you know what you're going to get, what you see is what you get with him."