Club Captain looks ahead to facing the Hammers
Shrewsbury Town Club Captain Mat Sadler has admitted that he is excited at the prospect of taking on West Ham on Sunday.
The third round tie will be live on BBC One and pits high flying Town against Premier League opposition.
“It is a really exciting game”, said Sadler
“We haven’t been thinking about it up until now purely because of how big the league games have been and that without question being our main priority, but it’s a game we are really looking forward to.
“We are looking forward to seeing the stadium full, we are looking forward to seeing the addition of BBC cameras and most of all we are just looking forward to the next game and we want to put on a good show.”
Tickets for the game sold out on Thursday and Sadler is looking forward to playing in front of a full house.
“Hopefully this is the first of many big games this season”, said Mat.
“I’m chuffed to bits that the grounds going to be full. Hopefully, that will then continue the attendance increases that have been happening and will culminate with us hopefully doing well and full houses here every week.”
West Ham’s busy fixture schedule may mean that they rest some players for Sunday’s game, but Mat knows how tough it will be and believes the Shrewsbury players will have to be at their best.
“In some respects it is a free hit because the league is our priority and we make no bones about that, but this is the next game that we want to try and win”, Sadler said.
“Whoever plays, they are in their squad for a reason. They have got vast budgets that they use and people on significantly higher wages that ourselves and for that reason you expect them to be a better calibre of player.
“It’s up to us to prove that’s wrong and hopefully give the fans something to really sink their teeth into and to really get behind us for. There’s no point us having 8,000 of our own fans here and selling out the ground if we don’t put on a show ourselves, so that is what we are looking to do.”