It may be scant consolation to Jose Riga but in the last two outings Ian Holloway and Paul Ince both succumbed to lower league opposition in the league cup and so no pressure in terms of our previous success in this competition! However, good news has been in short supply at Bloomfield Road of late and a moral boosting win is just what everyone could do with.
Morecambe and Preston were the previous conquerors of Blackpool in the first round of this competition and so at least we won't be embarrassed by a Lancashire side on this occasion. However, the connections to Blackpool are plenty ahead of this one from manager to players and of course to Chief Executive. From Micky Mellon and Michael Jackson in charge of the Shrews, to Scott Vernon, Andy Mangan. Mark Halstead and James Caton on the playing side to Matt 'fax machine' Williams, the connections go on and on. Therefore extra incentive for the former tangerines staff to do well against a side that seems a long way from finding it's feet.
You'd like to think that Blackpool have enough about them to progress in this competition but alot depends on who's available and what sort of team Riga can come out. It appears to be all cloak and dagger with regards the playing personnel. From the injuries to the five, to the registration details of the three to players who claim they've signed on Twitter but are nowhere to be seen. The only details ahead of this game on the Blackpool website are the ticket details whilst the team page appears as up to date as a North Korean phone book.
In contrast, Shrewsbury have gone to town on this one. Manager Mickey Mellon saying "It's a massive game like they all are. We want to treat them all like that. We're excited about playing against a team from a higher level. It's another opportunity for us to test ourselves. They're a group of Championship players who have Championship quality right throughout the group. We have to respect that and know that we'll have to be somewhere near our best to get something from the game. But we look forward to it. We're at home for our first home game of the season. There's a lot of connections to Blackpool here, so it's one of those strange ones that gets flung up every now and again, but that won't affect us,"
Early team news would suggest Liam Lawrence and Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro are both doubts after they both suffered injuries against AFC Wimbledon. They could be replaced by James Wesolowski and Ashley Vincent.
Blackpool hope Jose Miguel Cubero, Joan Oriol, Jeffery Rentmeister, Ishmael Miller and Joel Dielna
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