Striker looks forward to EFL Trophy
AJ Leitch-Smith is looking forward to welcoming Cambridge to the New Meadow tomorrow night in their first Football League Trophy meeting of the season.The forward lifted the trophy with Crewe in 2013 and he is hoping the competition will end in a Wembley appearance for Shrewsbury:
“It is a good opportunity for us. There is a chance to play at Wembley which is a big stage to play on. Thankfully I had the chance to play there and it was a great experience. There aren’t many players who can say they have played at Wembley. Hopefully we can get the result tomorrow and that will bring us a step closer.”
“I have played there twice and I have been lucky in terms of that. Hopefully we can do something in this competition and get close to being there. It is something you will always remember as a footballer and it was a very proud moment in my career.”
Cambridge currently sit at the foot of the League Two table but Leitch-Smith feels they will be in for a solid test against the U’s:
“They are all tough games and they have a couple of good lads there and they are a decent team so it is going to be a tough game. A lot of the league 2 teams are tough because it is a battle in that league so we are expecting a hard game.”
“The format is different this year with a group stage but all you can do is try and get the results and obviously get nearer to Wembley. All the games in our group are winnable games so we are looking forward to it and to seeing how we can do.”
The 26-year-old was still disappointed about missing the chance to clinch the game against Gillingham on Saturday and he is hoping to put that right on Tuesday:
“I had a good first touch and to be fair to the keeper he got out well and made a great save. It is disappointing because you want to be scoring those chances. All you can do is look forward to the next chance and hopefully when that does come I will take it. I think we were comfortable on Saturday in the first half. Then they got one back but we should still be comfortable but then you saw what happened. That happens sometimes in football.”
The former Port Vale player believes Shrewsbury deserve to be higher up the table with their performances so far this season:
“I don’t think we have got what we deserved in a few of the games. I think we deserve a few more points on the board. But that is football and you have to dust yourself down and get on to the next game. We have switched off for half a second in games and we have got punished. We will work on things in the training ground and try to improve and hopefully we can put all those things right. It does come down to points in the end so we can keep working on it but we need to cut out the mistakes and pick up more points.”
James Eley