Cardiff City 0-1 Shrewsbury Town

Andy Mangan scored on his second debut for Shrewsbury Town after rejoining from Tranmere Rovers

Cardiff City suffered an embarrassing third-round FA Cup exit as they were beaten by League One side Shrewsbury in front of a sparsely-populated crowd.

The hosts shaded a turgid goalless first half at the Cardiff City Stadium, with Sammy Ameobi hitting the post.

Although the Bluebirds continued to control possession, Andy Mangan headed the game's only goal after an hour.

Federico Macheda and Stuart O'Keefe both wasted chances as Shrewsbury, 20th in League One, held on.

Shrewsbury, 35 places below their opponents in the Football League, had only won one of their previous eight FA Cup ties against sides from a higher division since Kevin Ratcliffe's side beat Everton - and a young Wayne Rooney - in the third round in 2003.

Wretched pitch, near-empty stadium

A crowd of just 4,782 - marginally bigger than the stadium's record lowest football attendance of 4,194 - watched two much-changed sides toil on a muddy, deteriorating pitch, in a stadium that holds 33,280.

Cardiff manager Russell Slade kept only two players from the 1-0 league win against Blackburn, while Shrewsbury boss Mick Mellon made five alterations to the team thrashed 7-1 by Chesterfield.

It was one of Cardiff's nine changes, Alex Revell, who had the first shot of note but his scuffed rebound was easily palmed away by Mark Halstead.

Bluebirds winger Ameobi then struck the post with a low, firm effort, though neither side was able to play with any fluency on the sticky surface.

Cardiff kept the ball for long periods but to no avail, and they fell behind when Scott Vernon's deep, inswinging cross from the left flank was nodded in at the back post by Mangan, making his second debut for the club.

Former Manchester United striker Federico Macheda failed to take several good chances for Cardiff

Slade's side rallied with excellent chances for Macheda and O'Keefe, but both were denied by Halstead.

The hosts recorded 26 shots including blocked efforts, more than any other team in the FA Cup third round, but failed to capitalise, with Macheda particularly culpable.

Shrewsbury defended resolutely and still posed a counter-attacking threat, as Jordan Clark shot wide and Ian Black clipped the post, but Mellon's men were ultimately content to cling on to victory and reach the fourth round.

Manager reaction

Cardiff boss Russell Slade:

"We made a lot of changes but there are no excuses - I sent out a team with enough ammunition to get a positive result.

"We were a little bit wasteful in front of goal and then we've let ourselves down by not picking up their players in our box and they've scored.

"Our focus shifts on to the league almost immediately but I love the FA Cup and we're disappointed, we wanted to progress.

"Of course I'm prepared to take the criticism, all managers have to take that and the numbers don't lie."

Shrewsbury boss Micky Mellon:

"Football just drives me up the wall - one week we can have a performance like against Chesterfield and then they do this.

"The players were fantastic and stuck to the game plan that we had worked so hard on during the week and got their rewards for that.

"We always seem to get drawn away in this competition so I'd like the football gods to shine on us and draw us against one of the big boys at home."

What next?

Cardiff face high-flying Hull away in the Championship on Wednesday night, hoping to close on the play-off places. Shrewsbury will look to move away from the League One relegation zone as they host Barnsley on 16 January.