Shrewsbury Town look for cash boost in FA Cup clash with Notts County

It has been a demanding week for Matt Taylor and his players, who having only gotten back from Exeter on Wednesday afternoon, get back on the bus to Meadow Lane this time.

The FA Cup is a huge competition for Town, who were rewarded with £41,000 for beating Colchester United at the start of November.

So there are clear financial benefits for wanting to go as far as they can in the competition.

Especially with where the club finds itself at the moment as chairman Roland Wycherley has been forced to go into his own pocket to provide financial support.

The prize money available for winning this game is £67,000, which would would be a welcome injection of cash for the club.

The Shropshire Star also understands Shrewsbury will get a small five-figure sum for the game being played on a Friday – which is quite frankly a bizarre decision.

The game had to be moved from its original 3pm kick-off slot due to a clash with Nottingham Forest’s Premier League game on Saturday – they are taking on Everton.

But with Town’s midweek game against Exeter and the miles they have had to travel, it seems unreasonable. County have a clear advantage having been at home twice.

But there is little anyone can do about it, and Taylor’s depleted, injury-hit squad must dig deep to find something to get the win.

In fairness to Taylor, he has made some mention of injuries of late, but he has not made a song and dance about how much they are up against it.

And he is urging his players to put in a repeat performance of Tuesday night’s game.

“It’s really disappointing that we have got so many injuries,” he said. “But let’s focus on the players that are fit. The performance they put in on Tuesday night was really good. They really put their bodies on the line.

“Now we go to Notts County, who are a team we played in pre-season so we have got an idea how they are going to play.

“I’ve said before, I don’t want to use it as an excuse but the fact of the matter is that we are into double figures.

“We have to find a way of playing, find a way of being the best version of us we can be – without overusing the players.”

Town have been quite direct in their last couple of games and they have defended really well against opposition who are out of form, so the game against County will perhaps be the biggest challenge at the end of a demanding week.

Morgan Feeney has a laceration to his kidney and was passing blood, something they cannot take any risks with, while Taylor Perry trained on Thursday but will struggle to make it.

And the clash is still too soon for Jason Sraha and Elliot Thorpe.