Rob Edwards has demanded his Wolves players treat Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup clash with Shrewsbury Town like they would if they were facing the best teams in the Premier League.
After starting 2026 with as many top flight points from two games as they achieved in the previous 23, the head coach wants his players to maintain the momentum they have built in recent weeks and take it into this weekend’s third round tie.
A former Shrewsbury player, Edwards has many personal links to tomorrow’s opposition, including his cousin and former Wolves Academy colleague Sean Parrish now being part of the Shrews’ coaching staff, so he is determined for his players to give a good account of themselves at Molineux and not slip up against the League Two strugglers.
On Storm Goretti making an impact
“With all the weather that was forecast, we shifted training to a different time, so it’s given the lads time to get here safely. But I just want to say a big thank you now to all our ground staff and everyone that’s helped clear the pitch, because they’ve just spent about five hours clearing the pitch for us to be able to train.
“A huge, huge thank you and well done to those guys. I’ve just been over to see them all now and say thank you personally, because that means a lot.
“We’ll be able to train this afternoon now, otherwise it would have just been a snowball fight! Or we’d have been going inside in the arena, but it’s meant that we’re able to go out on the grass, which is great.”
On getting Rodrigo Gomes back in contention
“The only progression is Rodrigo. who will be able to be part of the matchday squad, which is great for us.
“He’s always smiling. From the moment that we met him, when we walked in the door, and he’d obviously not long had an operation, he was smiling, and he just gives off such a great energy. He's worked really hard for this, so we’re looking forward to hopefully getting him some game time tomorrow.
“Other than that, everyone came through unscathed the other day. Obviously, there’s some bumps and bruises, Krejci had a knock, but he’s recovered well so should be fine. There’s nothing else to report other than the guys who are still a number of weeks away, but we’re positive in the main.”
On Pedro Lima’s return against Everton
“He’s a really good technical player. He’s a wonderful crosser of the ball, and that was why we wanted to get him on late there [at Everton]. Once they went down to nine men, it was a question of what else can we do to try and affect this game in a slightly different way?
“We weren’t quite able to get him in the positions that we wanted him, or find him in the positions that we wanted him, in those last few minutes, but he can really cross the ball, something that we’ve seen in training a couple of days that we’ve had him on the training pitch, but he looks a really good technical player.
“We’re looking forward to working with him going forward as well, but he’s a young player, so he’s someone that we know we’re going to have to work together with, take small steps, but he’s got the right attitude, physically looks good, and technically as well, so I like him a lot.”
On keeping consistency with his team selection
“We want to keep the momentum. Definitely. That’s what football is about and when you’ve got it, you want to try and keep it. It’s not something that you can just click your fingers and get it going. It’s taken us a number of weeks to get to this point, and we want to try and keep that momentum. It’s really important for us right now.
“We are probably best suited at the moment as a back three or a five, but the top part of the team [formation-wise] might change and tweak, which it has done throughout our time here so far, so I don’t see that as too much of a change.
“Obviously, personnel-wise, there has been a couple of little changes, and that’s maybe what’s caught people’s attention a little bit more, more so than the shape, but we’ll always try and pick what’s right for the team and to try and win games of football.
“But we’ve certainly got something at the moment where we feel there’s consistency there. Whoever comes in the team as well, there’s this clear way, which is important.”
The most touches at the Hill Dickinson.
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 8, 2026
🇧🇷 @GomesOficial08 pic.twitter.com/VSytbR6OJ0
On personal links to Shrewsbury
“My last ever professional football match as a player was for Shrewsbury on loan, so I’m one of those that’s done a little bit for both. I grew up in Telford until I was about 14, and it’s an interesting game for us. There’s lots of links, both personally and for a lot of people around it, because obviously it’s a fairly local game for us, so it’s an interesting one and one we’re looking forward to as well.
“Not just because it’s the FA Cup, it’s a big competition and it’s something different from the league as well, but because we feel like we’re in a good moment, we’re playing pretty well, and we want to keep this momentum going.
“It’ll be strange because Sean and I have worked closely together in a number of different roles here and at Telford, when we did the year there as well, so it will be weird, but we’ve missed each other a few times, and we’re probably never going to speak about the game anyway, so it’s probably best not to talk before and then we can catch up again afterwards.
“But it’ll be funny seeing him in the other dugout, and looking forward to seeing him. There’s a bit of banter going back and forth, but I think everyone’s probably thinking about staying out of it until afterwards.”
On not taking the Shrews lightly
“We’ve got to make sure there’s none of that at all. We treat the game exactly the same as we treat any game in the Premier League, and it’s so important we do that. My message will be the same to the players.
“The players need to make sure we respect that, because we are not in a position where we can take our foot off the gas in any game at all, so that will be our message. We have to try and keep this little bit of momentum that we’ve got going, so we’ll be taking the game very seriously.
“We will make mistakes tomorrow, that’s inevitable in the game, and there’ll be an expectation on us that we’ve probably not had for a long, long time, so we have to be able to deal with that. If we show our levels then we know we can win the game, but we have to make sure we turn up and respect Shrewsbury.
“We see it all the time that teams playing in the leagues below can raise their level, they can enjoy the game, there’s a freshness, and there’s a different feel for them because they feel they can go out and play, because the pressure is off them.
“We need to make sure that we do things right, and it’ll be great to have the supporters on side. But all I’m thinking about is winning the game and preparing the players in the best way possible.”
