Marcus Braddock previews the game

Its games like this that make life worthwhile for the lower league fan, and there should be a good following of Salopian's at the Britannia Stadium. Hopefully we can make some noise to give the team a boost in what may be a difficult battle for us. Stoke have had the sort of start to their premiership campaign that they wouldn't have wanted, with two 2-1 defeats at Wolves and at home to Tottenham. Despite those losses, in both games they have looked a fully committed team as always, and although the League Cup may not be a high priority for the Potters, they won't fancy the ignominy of defeat to a League 2 team.

The Boss
As a player, Tony Pulis was quite well travelled, with two stints with Bristol Rovers, and Bournemouth and one with Happy Valley, Gillingham and Newport County. It's fair to say that Newport born Pulis was an old fashioned, no nonsense sort of defender, which reflects in the committed way his teams play. His first foray into the world of football management was with the team that he finished his playing career with, Bournemouth. As a player coach, he made a handful of appearances and then took over as manager when Harry Redknapp moved on to better things.
Gillingham was next for Tony, and he did quite a good job of turning a division 4 team into a decent Championship side. Pulis moved on to Bristol City, where things didn't go too well, partly because as an ex-Rovers player he had difficulty being accepted by the City faithful.
He quickly moved on to Portsmouth, who were being run by the infamous Milan Manderic, and unsurprisingly found success difficult. He left after just under a year in charge and didn't make an immediate return to management, but found himself in charge of Stoke City two years later. It was a relegation battle straight away for Pulis, with Stoke looking certainties for relegation from division 2. They dug deep though, avoided the drop, and finished 11th the following season, before being sacked for quite tenuous reasons.
From Stoke, he moved on to Plymouth and did a good job of turning round their fortunes, but it wasn't long before Stoke, this time under the control Peter Coates, came knocking on his door and he moved back to the potteries and some unfinished business. The rest is, as they say, history, with Pulis making some inspired signings that eventually turned an unfancied sleeping giant, into a Premiership side. Stoke have confounded the pundits since then, unexpectedly staying in the Premiership in their first season and establishing themselves as a team that nobody likes to play.

Played for Both sides
After beginning at Welsh amateur club Newtown, Andy Cooke started his professional career at Burnley, making 172 league appearances and scoring 51 goals. He joined Stoke City in 2000 and made 88 league appearances, scoring 21 goals, before moving to South Korean club Busan Icons in 2003.
On his return to England in January 2005, Cooke signed for Bradford City, playing 37 games and scoring 5 goals. He had a three-month spell on loan at Darlington before signing for Shrewsbury Town.
Cooke made his Shrewsbury Town debut in August 2006 as a half-time substitute for Kelvin Langmead in a 1-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers. He started the next match, a 1-0 defeat to Lincoln City, and in his third match scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 win against Stockport County.
In January 2007, Cooke scored his 100th professional goal during a 4-2 win over Stockport County. He also scored a hat-trick in the away game, giving him the distinction of having scored in both home and away against Stockport County in the 2006-07 season. After a barren spell, Cooke came on as a substitute in the League Two play-off semi-final second leg to score both goals in a 2-0 aggregate victory over MK Dons.
At the end of the season, Cooke was offered a new one-year contract, but was told by Gary Peters that he would not be guaranteed a regular place in the first-team squad. Cooke decided to stay with Shrewsbury Town.
Cooke scored twice in Town's 2007-08 opening day victory at Lincoln City, but then sustained a hamstring injury in a Carling Cup fixture against Colchester United three days later. He resumed full training in early December, and his comeback was complete when he returned to first-team action on Boxing Day 2007. Although he only played the first half against Stockport County, Cooke marked his return with a goal, his seventh in his last three games against them.
In January 2008, Cooke was set to sign a one-and-a-half year contract with Notts County, but the deal fell through because of a "late hitch".
In April 2008, Cooke was released by Shrewsbury Town by mutual consent, after being informed his contract would not be renewed. He trained with Kidderminster Harriers, but he wanted to keep playing in The Football League; however, when no club came in for him, he decided to retire from playing.

Referee
Mr Steve J Tanner. Games this season: 4. Yellow Cards: 21. Red Cards: 2.
Assistants
P Gooch and J Knowles
Fourth Official
R Merchant

Team News
Shrewsbury Town: Lionel Ainsworth and Daniel O'Donnell will both miss out because of injuries sustained against Aldershot, with Ainsworth expected to return for the weekend. Matt Harrold is serving a 1 match ban following his dubious sending off on Saturday. Kevin McIntyre will be available after completing a three-match ban. Nathan Elder is still injured for a while.

Stoke City
Kenwyne Jones is still suffering from the ankle injury sustained on the opening day of the season. Mamady Sidibe has had an operation on his Achilles tendon, and Tony Pulis may change things around whilst "not taking Shrewsbury lightly".

Summary
Four games into his second stint as Town manager and we are treated to a big game against Premiership opposition. To be sandwiched between Spurs and Chelsea in a midweek fixture may seem a little odd to younger Town fans , but we kind of got used to it in the early eighties. To get to the next round is going to mean hard work, determination and a bit of loud encouragement. Even then we are going to need a healthy slice of luck and possibly a following wind, but stranger things have happened. Most of the comments from our players are encouraging, with the message being that they are going to relax as underdogs and enjoy the game.

A couple of problems have reared their ugly heads with Town missing important players to injury and suspension, which is a shame as they helped to get us into this position. But there is an opportunity for other players to stake a claim in the first team and the return of Kev McIntyre means we can count on his strength against a physical side. All we can really wish for is that we give a good account of ourselves, which I believe we will, but if I was going to put a few quid on the game, logic would dictate that it would be on a home victory. Logic is all well and good though and my heart says we could win this by the odd goal if we play to our potential.

COYB
Marcus Braddock

Don't forget to cast your vote after the game for your Man of the Match!  To register your vote for the shrewsTRUST Man of the Match after ever game home and away send a text to 88442 with STFC and then the squad number of the player you chose. - 'STFC 99' ? Texts cost 25p plus your normal network charge.

Fancy a flutter on the game? then try ShrewsBet, Town's official online betting service > www.shrewsbet.co.uk

ShrewsWeb spoke to Graham Turner to get his thought's ahead of the game

On the Aldershot game at the weekend...
I've got to say that Aldershot looked a decent team. 2 different systems, we were trying to impose our system on them and come out on top, but to do that, we broke up quite a few attacks round the edge of our penalty area and maybe 10 yards outside the box. We should have done better on the counter attack and we gave the ball away quite a few times, we weren't positive enough on several occasions, we were just careless on several occasions. So the disappointment was that we didn't make enough of our ability to break forward. Then the equalizer from them upset me, coming from a set play, particularly upset me after they we had scored, and from then until half time, Aldershot had a lot of the ball and we had a rethink after half time and had to change our system slightly to match theirs. I thought for 20 minutes we started to get on top again and might have got another goal we needed. But I look at it and we didn't play particularly well with the ball, we can play a lot better than that, so a point is not a disaster for us.

On the Stoke City match...
It's a game we can look forward to, the pressure is off from getting league points. It's not to say that we won't go there thinking we can do well, we won't go there thinking the belief is not there. We have got to go there and have that belief, have that commitment to the game that we can get a good result out of it, irrespective of the level that they play at, irrespective of the team that they field. It's a game we look forward to but it's a game we want to do well in.
It's nice to be going to a Premiership club, there is the challenge, you're coming up against some very, very good professionals, let's go and put a show on.

On the following at the Britannia stadium...
A great following, it's not very often that supporters of a second division side go to a Premiership side. Obviously from this clubs point of view it's been 17 years, make the most of it, and we want to make the most of it. Cup competitions are very important for me, whether it's the Johnstone's paint trophy or the Carling cup, and in particular the F.A. Cup are great competitions. We want to progress in them as far as we can.

Watch Graham Turner's prematch thoughts on ShrewsPlayer