Ahead of the Carling Cup first round match between Shrewsbury and Ipswich tommorow I spoke to Vital Ipswich to find out if the Tractor boys feared the visit to Salop.
What do you expect going into the match?
A response to Sunday`s 2-1 defeat away to Coventry, meaning a comfortable win (probably because I`m not going!) I`ve been to the majority of away games in the last few seasons and I think I`ve seen 3 wins in that time! We should be fielding a few younger players – Jack Colback from Sunderland is a player that Roy Keane knows well from his time in charge in the North East, he is tipped for a big future and he will probably make his debut. A couple of players are away on international duty too, including captain Gareth McAuley and new signing Tamas Priskin.
Do you know anything about the Shrews?
I Have to admit I know very little. I know that they went down from the old Division Three(? Correct me if I am wrong) but then came up a few years ago. Now you are looking a pretty tidy outfit and a club on the up – new stadium, play-off finalists last season. And you started well on Saturday by beating Burton.
Do you expect to field a weakened side?
As I mentioned above, the international fixtures will cause a few players to be missing anyway, but Keano has blooded a lot of youth over the course of pre-season. Expect to see the likes of 16-year-old and our youngest ever first-teamer Connor Wickham in attack, he will no doubt be a Premiership if not England player one day, our youngest ever international (okay, it`s only Bermuda) Reggie Lambe and Ed Upson, scorer of the FA Youth Cup winning goal a few years back.
Do the fans want a good Carling Cup run or will it distract you from the league?
We have only got past the third round once in the last 7 years I believe and tend to get knocked out by lower league teams. I`d like a good Mickey Mouse cup run though, I feel that we could do an Arsenal and play a very young side in the Carling Cup and still do quite well without it distracting us from what hopefully will be a promotion-winning season.
Are there any Shrews players that you fear?
I would have said Grant Holt, but he left to join our feathered friends up the A140 in the form of Naaaaarwich. I wonder what he made of their 7-1 home defeat to Col Who? on Saturday!
How do you think Town will do this year? and yourselves?
I`m expecting the Shrews to get at least the play offs if you have another player like Holt who can score 20 goals. Every team needs a player like that and hopefully we have our 20 goal man in Tamas Priskin. With the likes of Newcastle and Boro in the Championship, the league is as difficult as ever. If we can bring in Giovani dos Santos again from Spurs then I think automatic promotion is on the cards, without him we have a good chance anyway but I will settle for the play offs.
Finally, will Keano be bringing his dogs out for the day in Shropshire?
Haha, I reckon Triggs is going to stay at home in Ipswich!
