Shrewsbury Town have booked their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup courtesy of a 1-0 victory over Cardiff City in South Wales this evening.
The League One strugglers, who went into the match off the back of a 7-1 defeat to Chesterfield last weekend, got the only goal of the game at the Cardiff City Stadium to dump their Championship opponents out of the competition and add their name to the list of third-round upsets this weekend.
It was the visitors who had the first real shooting chance of the match when Ian Black lifted a free kick over the crossbar, but they were soon forced to weather a storm as Cardiff began to put their lower-league opponents under pressure.
Alex Revell first fired an effort narrowly wide, while moments later Mark Halstead denied the striker just seconds after making another save from Federico Macheda.
Halstead was beaten in the 25th minute when Sammy Ameobi drilled a low shot towards goal from the edge of the box, but the woodwork came to Shrewsbury's rescue as the ball thumped against the foot of the post.
Those missed chances proved costly shortly after the hour mark when the visitors broke the deadlock, with Scott Vernon providing the cross for Andrew Mangan to header home at the back post, marking his second debut for the club with a goal.
The hosts had opportunities to level things up again, the best of which fell to Macheda with 20 minutes remaining, but Halstead got down well to thwart the former Manchester United striker from close range.
Jordan Clark then put an effort wide as Shrewsbury went in search of a second to put the game to bed, but they were given another warning at the other end moments later when Stuart O'Keefe's strike was well saved.
Cardiff went pushing for a late equaliser and came close through Bruno Ecuele Manga in stoppage time when he headed just wide, but it was the visitors who almost added the game's second goal when Black struck the woodwork with the final action of the match.
Barney Corkhill
