National cups are something special for many teams and supporters. Today's match will decide whether it's Shrewsbury Town or Lincoln City that keep their silverware dream alive.
There’s little time for restitution or working hard at the training pitch these days, with both teams having played their last game less than four days ago.
Shrewsbury Town form and stats
This is not the first game this season in the EFL Trophy for Shrewsbury, as the manager S. Ricketts led his troops to eliminate Newcastle United U21, Crewe Alexandra and Bolton Wanderers, and reach the 2nd Round. Shrewsbury was eliminated in the 2nd round last season in the EFL Trophy.Shrewsbury Town's results here at Montgomery Waters Meadow in the League One have been very modest with 0 victories, 5 draws and 3 defeats. 3W-0D-0L is the hard facts regardless of venue in the EFL Trophy for Shrewsbury Town. The home team are struggling everywhere these days as they haven't won a league-game, regardless of being the home or the away team, in ten attempts. Shrewsbury Town are slowly digging their own grave here at Montgomery Waters Meadow with the depressing streak of not having won a home league game in ten attempts. The last victory here came in the Doncaster Rovers match.
The spoils were shared in Shrewsbury's previous game, also at home. Visiting Charlton Athletic travelled back with a draw after a 1-1 scoreline. Before that, Shrewsbury drew at home versus Accrington Stanley.
The hosts are modest favourites in this match, with the bookmakers estimating the chance of a home win at about 50% +- five percent. It's interesting to look at how Shrewsbury Town have performed under similar circumstances, so here are some numbers: When modest favourites like this (we found 13 games) they have won two times, drawn seven and lost four.
Shrewsbury Town are traveling soon after this match as the League One match at Hull City awaits in four days.
Shrewsbury has scored 10 league goals at home this season, in 8 matches. Shrewsbury have conceded 13 from these games. There's been improvement defensively lately, as only -1 of these goals has been conceded in their last 3 home matches.
Lincoln City form and stats
The traveling awayteam has defeated Manchester City U21, Mansfield Town and Scunthorpe United in order to reach 2nd Round of EFL Trophy. They also participated in EFL Trophy last season. This ended in the group stage.The away team have been very comfortable on their travels so far, racking up 5 wins, 2 draws and only 1 loss in the League One. The mentioned statistics is only from the league, looking at the EFL Trophy stats, they have 1 win, 2 draws and 0 losses both home and away. Lincoln has recorded two wins in a row in their away matches and hold legitimate hopes of a third one.
It's the second away game in a row for Lincoln, but there's smiles all around after the 2-0 victory versus Rochdale in the League One last time out. Before that, Lincoln City secured a home win against Wigan Athletic with the score 2-1.
Lincoln are the outsiders in this one, but not by much. Their performance in similar games (being the away team and moderate outsiders) is three wins, zero draws and seven defeats. From a total of ten matches.
A new game in only four days for Lincoln, the League One home match versus Sunderland. Busy days.
Lincoln City find the net regularly in their away games. 9 goals from 8 away fixtures in the league. The Lincoln defense is a tough nut to crack, having conceded less than half a goal per away game on average (4 goals in 8 games). There's been improvement defensively lately, as only -1 of these goals has been conceded in their last 3 away matches.
Head 2 Head
H2H stats regardless of arena (last ten matches): Shrewsbury four wins, four draws and Lincoln City two victories. As for goals, two matches ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), eight games had two or less.Top Goalscorers
  J. Grant 7 goals | L. Montsma 4 goals |  A. Pierre 3 goals |
Shrewsbury Town missing players
Lincoln City missing players
| Shrewsbury Town | Lincoln City | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 14 | Played | P | 12 | 25 | ||
| 8 | 4 | Won | W | 8 | 15 | ||
| 8 | 5 | Drew | D | 2 | 5 | ||
| 9 | 5 | Lost | L | 2 | 5 | ||
| 37 | 21 | Scored | S | 19 | 43 | ||
| 38 | 20 | Conceded | C | 8 | 27 | ||
| 96% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 83% | 88% | ||
| 72% | 79% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 58% | 72% | ||
| 52% | 57% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 42% | 44% | ||
| 32% | 29% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 25% | 28% | ||
| 24% | 21% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 17% | 20% | ||
| 64% | 71% | BTTS | BTTS | 33% | 48% | ||
| 28% | 21% | Clean Sheets | C S | 50% | 44% | ||
| 12% | 7% | Failed to Score | F T | 33% | 20% | ||
| 0 | 0 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 0 | 0 | ||
| 0 | 0 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2.4 | 2.4 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.7 | 2 | ||
| 4 | 2 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 2 | ||
| 12.6 | 14.7 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 12.2 | 11.6 | ||
| 3.8 | 4.3 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 3 | 3.2 | ||
| 39% | 35% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 53% | 54% | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Hull City | 15 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 27 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 9 | 15 | 34 |
| 2 | Lincoln City | 15 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 20 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 10 | 32 |
| 3 | Ipswich Town | 16 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 21 | 16 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 29 |
| 4 | Portsmouth | 16 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 28 | 15 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 7 | 13 | 28 |
| 5 | Peterborough United | 16 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 24 | 17 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 28 |
| 6 | Charlton Athletic | 15 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 20 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 8 | 6 | 27 |
| 7 | Accrington Stanley | 13 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 18 | 13 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 26 |
| 8 | Doncaster Rovers | 14 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 25 | 16 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 24 |
| 9 | Sunderland | 15 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 18 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 24 |
| 10 | Fleetwood Town | 16 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 25 | 16 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 23 |
| 11 | Gillingham | 15 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 17 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 23 |
| 12 | Blackpool | 15 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 16 | 18 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 10 | -2 | 22 |
| 13 | Crewe Alexandra | 16 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 18 | 17 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 20 |
| 14 | AFC Wimbledon | 15 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 | 21 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 14 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 7 | -1 | 20 |
| 15 | Plymouth Argyle | 15 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 21 | 27 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 14 | -6 | 19 |
| 16 | Northampton Town | 16 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 15 | 25 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 13 | -10 | 18 |
| 17 | Milton Keynes Dons | 16 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 18 | 21 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 12 | -3 | 17 |
| 18 | Rochdale | 15 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 16 | 22 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 11 | -6 | 16 |
| 19 | Bristol Rovers | 15 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 15 | 24 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 14 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 10 | -9 | 16 |
| 20 | Swindon Town | 16 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 21 | 32 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 21 | -11 | 16 |
| 21 | Oxford United | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 14 | -8 | 15 |
| 22 | Burton Albion | 16 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 20 | 30 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 15 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 15 | -10 | 12 |
| 23 | Shrewsbury Town | 15 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 16 | 24 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 11 | -8 | 11 |
| 24 | Wigan Athletic | 15 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 11 | 22 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 12 | -11 | 11 |