Town boss remaining grounded despite win over Blackpool
Manager Micky Mellon is not getting carried away by Tuesday night’s win over Blackpool and insists Tranmere Rovers will provide a different test for Shrewsbury Town on Saturday.Town host Rob Edwards’ side for their first home League Two fixture of the season four days after knocking Championship team Blackpool out of the Capital One Cup at the Greenhous Meadow.
“You want to take the positives out of victories but Saturday will be a different challenge,” said Micky.
“It’s a game at our level and our bread and butter.
“We’re delighted to have beaten a Championship team, it shows some progress.
“It has set us a standard which we’re going to have to meet every week now.
Everybody knows what we can achieve and that will be the benchmark for everything we do, but we’ve got to make sure we’re fully focused and come along with the same attitude on Saturday.
“We need to make sure we’re somewhere near our best to make sure we get a result.”
Rovers were relegated from League One last season and started their 2014/15 League Two campaign by salvaging a 1-1 draw at home to York City.
The Mersyside outfit were also narrowly knocked out of the Capital One Cup at home to Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, but Micky believes there are plenty of dangermen in Edwards’ side.
“They’re a club with a proud tradition. We’ve watched them a lot and I’ve been to see them live in pre-season playing,” said Micky.
“We know it will be a tough game. They’ve got good players and they’ll be well fired-up to come here, so we know the threats are there.
“They’ve got people who, if you don’t pay proper attention to them and deal with them, can punish you on the day.
“We know we’ve got to be absolutely at our best to get something from the game.
“We want to score goals and entertain, but ultimately we want to win games of football.
“Every game will be different. Tuesday night was that type of game – passing and counter attacking, with both teams opening out and trying to play attractive football.
“On Saturday I’m expecting it to be different, so we’ll have to try and find a way of winning that game.”
Micky also revealed that defender Mark Ellis suffered a knee injury in the game against Blackpool and is a doubt for Saturday’s match.
“Mark Ellis has a knee injury so he’ll need to go for a scan to see how that looks, he picked it up against Blackpool,” said Micky.
“Apart from that we’re pretty much ok and good to go for the weekend.”
And with Town supporters urged to wear blue and amber as part of the Wall of Colour day, Micky has backed the idea and believes it will benefit the Club on matchday.
“It’s great, the players love to see that,” said Micky.
“We all belong to a club and we all have a uniform of colours that represent our club.
“The more people we see wearing that makes us feel that we’re all in this challenge together. It will be fantastic to see the ground full of people wearing our colours.”