Michael Appleton targeting victory for Shrewsbury at Sixfields
Shrewsbury boss Michael Appleton says his side will go to Sixfields to win on Tuesday night as they look to book their place in the knockout stages of the EFL Trophy.
Shrews, whose five-game unbeaten run was ended by a 3-1 defeat to Crewe at the weekend, will qualify alongside Northampton from Southern Group C if they win tomorrow evening. Anything else and Walsall progress.
Whilst Shrewsbury, currently 23rd in League Two, could be forgiven for having half an eye on Saturday’s huge game against bottom-of-the-table Newport County, Appleton insists they want to beat Cobblers and progress in the Vertu Trophy.
"It was a huge disappointment to lose our unbeaten run but we have to bounce back from it now,” said Appleton. “I didn’t like what I saw on Saturday, we lost too many duels and too many headers, but I’m hoping we can react really quickly and make sure we’re very competitive in midweek.
"It’ll almost be a dress rehearsal for Saturday in terms of how we go about it and what we want to do. Regardless of the result on Tuesday, I just want to see a much more competitive performance than what we produced against Crewe and we need to be better in key moments against Northampton.
"We have to address what we weren’t great at and make sure we do something about it on Tuesday. The reality is there’s no grey areas. It’s very much black and white – win and we’re through, lose and we’re out.
"Anything other than a win on Tuesday isn’t going to be good enough and I think that probably helps in a way and makes it a better scenario for us. We need to go there and win and we’ll have the attitude to do that.”