West Ham United vs Shrewsbury Town. The FA Cup Third Round.
London StadiumAttendance39,867.
Tuesday 16 January 2018 20:42, UK
West Ham United host Shrewsbury Town in an FA Cup third-round replay on Tuesday night, intent on progressing in the competition.
The Hammers were held to a goalless draw in the first meeting at New Meadow, but assistant manager Alan Irvine says the Premier League team will do everything they can to make it into the next round.
"We were certainly pleased to get out of the game with a draw, because we didn't play well enough in the game," said Irvine.
"It's good for us to have the replay. Clearly we want to win the game and we want to progress in the FA Cup.
"It would be fantastic if we could get a good run in the Cup. Having said that, the priority is clear, we have to stay in this division.
"We're not going into the game on Tuesday thinking we wish we were out. It would be fantastic if we could get a cup run to go along with a run in the league and challenge on both fronts."
However, David Moyes' team are set to be without strikers Javier Hernandez and Andy Carroll for the clash, with the former having missed training on Monday with illness, while the latter is injured again.
The Scot will likely hand Joe Hart a start in goal against their opponents, who saw their 10-match unbeaten run in League One come to an end at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
Shrewsbury boss Paul Hurst, meanwhile, expects a much-improved West Ham showing at the London Stadium.
The Sky Bet League One high-flyers enjoyed the better chances in the first game and Hurst believes that performance from his promotion-chasers will ensure the Hammers will "perform better" in Tuesday night's clash.
"I think it will certainly be more difficult," Hurst told Shrewsbury's official website.
"Whatever they thought of us going into the first game they have now seen first-hand, so there will be no underestimating us and they will know that they will have to perform better than they did in the first game to progress.
"I'm sure they will have more of the ball than they did in the first game and create more chances, so we need to try and limit it as much as possible, whether it's last-ditch defending, a good goalkeeping performance or a bit of luck along the way.
"But, going the other way we need to try and create a couple of chances ourselves and make it as difficult as we can."
The winners will travel to either Bournemouth or Wigan Athletic in the fourth round.
West Ham will be hosting Shrewsbury for the first time since September 1980, when the Hammers ran out 3-0 winners in a second-tier clash.
West Ham have won each of their last seven FA Cup home matches against lower league opponents, scoring 20 goals (avg 2.9 goals per game).However, the Hammers have lost each of their last four FA Cup replays against sides from the Championship or lower, failing to score in each of the last three.
The Shrews have never won an FA Cup encounter away to a top-flight side, losing nine and drawing one - with their last such match coming in February 1984, a 3-0 loss to Everton.
Well it is fabulous stuff going on for West Ham under David Moyes so far, but he'll just want the job done here.
And I think he'll rest Noble and maybe even Marko Arnautovic for this tie.
Charlie predicts: 2-0 and Hernandez to score first (13/1 with Sky Bet)
Follow the FA Cup third-round replay action on Tuesday and Wednesday with our live blog on skysports.com and the Sky Sports apps.
