You’ve beaten Liverpool and Manchester United to be here, yet it was Shrewsbury Town who had you on the ropes in the fourth round. How tough an obstacle did they prove to be?
If you are looking at it based on league position, then it is rather surprising but when you go away to a smaller ground it is always going to be difficult. They will feel they should’ve got the job done when they were 2-0 up, but we were confident we had a decent chance of progressing once we got it back to Molineux. We put out a good team and went there to win so it was a shock for us. Shrewsbury played really well and surprises like that do happen in The FA Cup; sometimes teams don’t turn it around, but it shows the type of character we’ve had all season that we managed to get it back to our place. We carried on with what we believed in, we managed to work the ball rather than lumping it long like some teams do in those situations, especially late in a game, and we still scored playing our way.
You are going toe-to-toe for seventh place in the Premier League with Watford, but that is on hold today – it’s a straight shootout for a place in The FA Cup Final...
It’s exciting, we’ve got a chance to get to The FA Cup Final. We’re playing a semi-final at Wembley, what else do you want? It’s what you dream of. We are full of confidence and looking forward to getting the game underway. Watford are a good team who have already beaten us this season so we know how tough it is going to be. We have good memories of Wembley this season after we beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-1. It would be good to continue on a high note and play as well as we did in that game.
What are your memories of The FA Cup as a young boy?
I supported Arsenal growing up so I remember them winning it a few times, particularly when Patrick Vieira scored the winning penalty in 2005. It’s a huge competition so I’ve always had an interest in what was happening so thinking about it deeply, it’s pretty crazy to for me to be involved in an FA Cup semi-final. Mick McCarthy gave me my debut in The FA Cup when I was 18, away at Doncaster Rovers. It’s where I got my chance and this year’s FA Cup run has been good to me. Players have got on the end of my passes and I’ve managed to score a few goals so my experiences have been positive.
