Scottish Midfielder looks forward to FA Cup Replay
Shrewsbury Town midfielder Jim O’Brien is hopeful that Town can back up Saturday’s win against Millwall with another victory in the FA Cup tonight.Jim was part of the side, which pulled off the back to the walls win in London and he wants see more of the same determination tonight against Fleetwood.
“There was a lot of determination and it was a hard-fought win, but that is what it’s going to take to get us out of the situation we are in,” O’Brien told the Press.
“I’ve been there before and you’ve got to do the dirty things well and I think we did that on Saturday. They might have come away feeling a little bit hard done by, but we’ll take it.
“It’s a hard place to go and get a result, but we did that and the lads are feeling good. There’s been a lot of games this season where we’ve felt unlucky, but hopefully our luck is turning now and over the course of the season things like that even themselves out.”
This will be the third of four clashes in just over a month between the two sides and O’Brien is confident of getting a result and hopefully a good FA Cup run.
“It would be nice to have an FA Cup run,” said Jim.
“When you are not doing so well it is a nice distraction from the league and it can help you get a little bit of momentum going, so I think if we can go there and take Saturday’s performance into it then I think we’ve got a good chance.
“We know what they’re like, this will be the third time we’ve played them and we’ll be fed up of seeing them by the turn of the New Year. We know what to expect and they know what to expect of us, so I think it should be a decent clash.
“They will obviously think they are favourites because of their league position and the fact they took three points off us in the league game up there, but we’re very confident from out last few performances.”
Town struggled to deal with Fleetwood’s 3-5-2 formation in the league game last month, but O’Brien believes Town have put that right and must now concentrate on their own game in order to get the win.
“I think in the game up there it was difficult because we played a diamond,” the former Celtic midfielder admitted.
“I think on the ball it was better for us, but off the ball they were bombing on, so it’s a lot of work for the two outside guys of the diamond to cover. We addressed that and we played a 4-4-2 here and it worked better for us and I think we dominated the game.
“In this league there’s maybe one or two teams that should dominate you, but on the day anyone can beat anyone. I think you’ve got to concentrate more on what you do as a team and how you set up and do your own jobs and not worry too much about the opposition.”