DESPITE finishing rock-bottom last season in League One, Bradford City experienced rare moments of joy home and away against Shrewsbury Town, winning 1-0 in Shropshire on the opening day, before edging a thriller 4-3 in January at Valley Parade.

It continued a good run of form for the Bantams against the Shrews, with last year's double meaning they have only lost one of their last eight matches against them.

However the FA Cup is fairly new territory for the pair. They have been drawn together just twice in the competition before, with the last meeting seeing Town edge a replay 2-1, following a 0-0 draw at Valley Parade, in November 1990.

Both have steady FA Cup records in recent years going into tomorrow's clash.

Shrewsbury have won all of their first round matches since 2014, while City have got to the third round twice and the quarter final once in the last five seasons.

Interestingly, the Bantams have also won three of their last four FA Cup ties against teams from a higher division, including the famous victories over Chelsea and Sunderland in 2015.

History arguably favours City, and Shrews manager Sam Ricketts is impressed with what he has seen from Gary Bowyer's men so far.

He said: “They’ve changed a lot (from last season). They're doing really well in their league and a team that’s doing well, it doesn’t make a difference whether they’re in the league below, because it’s their momentum and confidence that’s high, in which case, so will be their mentality.

“They’d be pushing mid-table and higher in this league so it’s far from an easy game. They’re a team that are used to performing well and picking up results, so they enter every game with that sort of mindset of expecting to get a result.”

“They’ve had great runs over the years in this cup and obviously the League Cup as well. It’ll be a good game but a tough game.”