The Gaffer looks forward to a trip to The Valley
Shrewsbury Town take on relegated Charlton Athletic on Tuesday. It will be the second time already this season that Town have faced a relegated side after playing MK Dons on the opening day.Town were unlucky not to take all three points against Coventry on Saturday, after a spirited second half display.
Town will be looking to score their first league goal of the season against the Addicks and will have new signings George Waring and Moha El-Ouriachi at their disposal for the trip to South London.
Micky Mellon has been pleased with his sides start to the new season, but is under no illusions as to how difficult League One is.
“This is League One,” Micky told ShrewsWeb.
“We always saw what the challenges will be, how difficult they are every week. Just been to Coventry and every week now we come up against another giant if you like of English football.
“It’s another tough challenge, but again with the group we are putting together and the challenges we are enjoying taking part in, we will fully focus on that now and go down there and represent the people of Shrewsbury well again.
“We now believe, this season, in getting closer to these top clubs and running them closer, if not getting the result in the second half on the weekend. So, we’re heading definitely in the right direction.
“It’s very pleasing, but we’re not resting on anything. We’ve done okay so far, we just want to keep on building on it and keep going to these big fancied teams and showing them what we are capable of.”
With the likes of Ivan Toney, George Waring and Moha El-Ouriachi signing for the club, Micky is hoping that his side will play an entertaining brand of football.
“We want people to come and watch the club and be excited, Micky explained.
“We want them to come and watch a team that they’re proud of and it’s not just like a sterile, move it across the pitch. We want people to go and take people on and go and dribble and have shots at goal.
“That’s what football’s all about and it’s been different this year and fingers crossed we get up to the transfer window and we don’t get them all bought again, where we have to try and restart with loan players and trying to find players to fill gaps of exceptional players, like Woods and Goldson.
“So, hopefully we’ll be a lot more settled going into the period up until the window closes and then reopens again in January. We’ll know the group that we’ll be able to work with all that time.”
Micky confirmed that AJ Leitch-Smith was still struggling with a hamstring injury, but believes that his squad is good enough to cope.
“AJ will not be available, he’s still quite sore, but Shaun (Whalley) will train with us this morning (Monday),” said Micky.
“But, that’s why we’ve got a squad. That’s why we’ve brought the squad together like the one we’ve got and bringing the boys in that we have to cover for that.
“We have no excuses. The lads that will come in are good players, with different qualities, but we’ll play the team and try to get the best out of them in order to get a result down at Charlton.”
The Gaffer also confirmed that Richie Wellens continues to be part of the club, but that James Wesoloski is no longer training at the Greenhous Meadow.
“Richie’s still with us,” acknowledged Micky.
“We’ve had conversations with him, he knows the situation and it’s a situation you get all the time at football clubs. We just go day to day with that.”
“James is not here at the minute. Because of the situation with the amount of midfield players that we have, it would have to be a one in one out situation.
“We haven’t be able to do that quite the way we wanted in order to make room for people to bring them in, so we can’t stock pile or overload in certain areas. So, at the minute we won’t be doing anything with that one,” Micky added.