Gaffer's thoughts after the trip to Charlton
Micky Mellon was disappointed as Shrewsbury Town were humbled 3-0 on their visit to the Valley but the Scotsman was keen to highlight the quality of opposition they have been up against so far this campaign:“We have seen things we wanted to see and we are disappointed with other things. I am not going to stand here and say we are delighted to concede three goals. But from what we saw today if we could cut out the individual errors we give ourselves more of a chance. We have been up against three of the fancied teams in the division, we were toe to toe with Coventry and it was fine margins on the opening day too.”
The defeat leaves Shrewsbury one place off the foot of the table but Mellon believes it is still far from panic stations and he feels his side have impressed at times without getting the result:
“We have had four tough games, that is what you have to remember. We have been against a Championship team, two that were relegated from the Championship and Coventry who are fancied to be up there challenging. There hasn’t been much in it. The players have run themselves to a standstill and they kept going with their effort but like I keep saying we must be better in certain moments.”
“But what I must say is I thought the fans were fantastic and I was so desperate to get them a goal. If we defend the basics better I think we had some good ball retention and we kept the ball very well. We had some good chances in that first half, I remember Toney going one on one with the goalkeeper and Dodds went in on goal too. At the end of the day they scored them and we didn’t and we defended poorly at times.”
The 44-year-old believes individual errors were largely to blame for the defeat and feels each of Charlton’s goals could have been avoided:
“I think the frustrating thing which is the obvious is we can’t give away the goals we did if we were going to give ourselves any chance. That was the disappointing thing probably the 10 minutes of individual errors and losing a goal direct from a corner is always going to make it very difficult coming to a place like this.”
“It is easy for me now to stand here and go through them all individually. I think anyone who knows anything about football would say why didn’t you do this or that with all the goals in all honesty. You can’t come to a place like this and make basic errors like that. You can’t concede a goal from a corner and when someone is running at your goal full flight you have to go and engage the ball. When you are playing three at the back and crosses are coming in you want to be dominating that eighteen yard box. Although having seen the goal back the boys and even the ref have said it was a handball. But those things go against you.”
Mellon was excited about what George Waring and Mohamed el Ouariachi Choulay can bring to the side after they both came off the bench in the defeat. The Stoke City pair have both joined the club on a six month loan:
“I think without a doubt you saw what they are going to bring. George is big and robust and will represent you up that right side of the pitch. To be fair I think at the end they have come on at a time when Charlton were killing the game and the game was dying. But I thought they came on and did very well.”
The former Fleetwood boss talked through the formation he chose and believed it was only thwarted by the defensive mishaps:
“The thought process with the three at the back was that we wanted to get the overloads in the right areas of the pitch. As you saw we passed it for fun and controlled large chunks of the possession for most of the first half. The only time we were troubled was with the individual errors. We retained a lot of control in the game. We kept possession and we wanted to come here and do that because they are a physical side and if you give them the opportunity with the football they will make you defend.”