Steve Cotterill: Shrewsbury Town attitude will be spot on for Stratford Town FA Cup test
Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill is confident his team’s attitude will not be called into question as the visitors look to avoid an unwanted FA Cup upset at Stratford Town.
Cotterill’s men begin their FA Cup campaign tomorrow with a televised potential banana skin at the non-league step three Bards, who are ranked 84 positions further down the pyramid than Town.
The Town chief had insisted his side will pay maximum respect to their hosts and confirmed yesterday he knows Paul Davis’ side inside out after due diligence.
Cotterill praised Stratford as an ‘organised, honest, hard-working’ outfit. Much the same has been said of his Town side, albeit one struggling at the wrong end of League One this term. The FA Cup minnows cliché is often about the higher-ranked side turning up with the right attitude – and Cotterill has no doubts of that.
“I think it’s pretty clear to the boys where I am with this game,” Cotterill said. “No stone has been left unturned, I’ve done as much work as I did for Lincoln last week and we have great respect for Lincoln.
“You just hope nothing goes wrong on the day and your team plays well.
“All those things (organised, honest, hard-working) I’ve said about them have been said about our team this year.
“I don’t question our boys’ attitude and application. We might make a mistake, give a silly goal away, I don’t think that has been down to attitude.
“It might be knowledge, if it’s one of the younger guys, a slip if one of the experienced guys, a mistake.
“I don’t worry about our guys, I don’t think ‘oh my God they’ve got their heads in the clouds’ going into tomorrow, I don’t sense that from them.”
Stratford are 12th in the Southern Premier Central. They reached the Cup’s fourth qualifying and now a sold-out first round tie for the first time in their history.
“You can ask me of any of their players now and I’ll tell you their strengths and weaknesses, so hopefully all the lads have learned all that as well,” the Shrews boss added.
“They’re organised, honest, hard-working for each other, they have a good spirit, otherwise non-league teams don’t get to this stage. They beat a very good Boston team.
“They will make it difficult, we’ve just got to make sure we make it more difficult for them than they do for us.
“Players will be totally aware of who they are playing, I don’t know how big the dressing rooms are, what their pitch is like, but throughout all of our careers we’ve all been to (different) places.”
Cotterill said: “Of course (the nation wants us to lose), that’s why the cameras turn up, because they think ‘where can there be an upset?
“We’ve just got to make sure we’re not on the back of that.”
Midfielder Josh Vela (knee) may return from six weeks out injured. Cotterill said he will not start, but could feature on the bench. Josh Daniels (ankle) is ruled out.
