Stoke see off Shrewsbury to advance to the third round

Stoke 2 Shrewsbury 1

Stoke secured a place in the third round of the Carling Cup thanks to goals from Jon Walters and Tuncay.

But whether goalkeeper Asmir Begovic will be heading along the road to Wembley with the club remains to be seen.

The Bosnian was not included in tonight’s squad, leading to speculation he is about to leave the Britannia Stadium, perhaps for Chelsea.

Begovic was signed last season from Portsmouth for a reported £3.5million and started three games at the tail-end of the campaign after Thomas Sorensen was injured.

However, the Dane regained the jersey and played in the first two league matches of this season. He was on the bench against the League Two side with Carlo Nash promoted.

when they scored twice without reply. Steve Leslie got a late consolation for the League Two side.

It was Walters’ first goal for the club. The former Ipswich forward, who arrived last week, got on the end of a cross from Matthew Etherington to send a glancing header beyond goalkeeper Chris Neal in the 26th minute.

This time there was no dispute about Walters’ effort. He thought he had equalised in stoppage time against Tottenham on Saturday only for referee Chris Foy to allow play to continue.

Shrewsbury suffered a further blow in the 37th minute and again Etherington was the provider.

The midfielder’s delivery into the area was met by Tuncay and for the second time in the space of 11 minutes Neal was beaten by a header.

Then Whelan thumped in a shot from distance the goalkeeper did well to parry as the 54th minute and drove in a shot that caught Neal on the hop. The goalkeeper was grateful to turn it around the post for a corner.

Shrewsbury were finding it difficult getting out of their own half and Whelan was off-target from distance before Michael Tonge dragged a shot wide of the post.

Pulis decided to shake things up and brought on Ricardo Fuller for Tuncay in the 67th minute with Chelsea to come on Saturday.

The sight of Fuller coming on the pitch must have been slightly un-nerving for Shrewsbury, given he scored against Tottenham

However to their credit they pulled a goal back in the 79th minute through Leslie, who headed in at the back post.

Leslie took full advantage after Ryan Shawcross and then Nash failed to deal with a routine cross from Sean McAllister.

Walters should have restored he somehow clipped his close-range effort wide of the post.