Sam Ricketts talks to Shrewsweb ahead of Saturday’s fixture. Town host League Two side Bradford City in the first round of The FA Cup.
“I think as soon as you mention The FA Cup, you think back to last year with the run we had, great games, Stoke home and away, Wolves home and away and that’s where you want to try and get to again. You want to have a run and enjoy the competition.
"It is the greatest cup competition in the world and everyone wants to be part of it and have success in it because it does bring publicity, opportunity for players and supporters to go to places like Stoke and Wolves like last year and you never know what’s going to happen.” Sam said.
Sam talked about going on to replicate another run like last year. “It’s not easy otherwise you’d be doing it every year but you’ve just got to win your games and if you win the first couple of rounds you get yourself into the third round draw then who knows where you end up, with a bit of luck you can get a big side or you can progress and get through to the fourth round like we did. You need luck but ultimately you need to win your games as well.”
Bradford sit high in League Two and after last year, Town know that they will be a tough opponent and will be up for the game. “They’ve changed a lot; they’re doing really well in their league and a team that’s doing well doesn’t make a difference whether they’re in the league below because it’s their momentum and confidence that’s high in which case so will their mentality. They’d be pushing mid-table and higher in this league so it’s far from an easy game. They’re a team that are used to performing well and picking up results, so they enter every game with that sort of mindset of expecting to get a result.”
Town’s hosts are known well to cause a few upsets after beating Chelsea who were champions of England on their own turf. “They’ve had great cup runs over the years in this cup and obviously the League Cup as well. It’ll be a good game but a tough game.”
Many of Town's players will remember their amazing cup run that they had last year and throughout the dressing room they would have shared their memories on what that was like. “Straight away you can hear people talking about it. You hear player’s interviews about it, I think Josh Laurent was asked the other day what his favourite game has been and it was Stoke away when he scored the winner so the memories are still very much there for players who were here last year.”
Going into Saturday’s game, Sam talked to us about his side’s injuries at the minute. “They’re not too bad, Max has had a scan so we’ll just be assessing him over the next couple of days and see how quickly he can recover from that. Fortunately, it’s nothing too major, apart from that there’s no one else coming back, everyone else is ok.”