Gaffer pleased with the performance but not the result
Manager Micky Mellon said that the gutsy performance from his players left him disappointed Town came away with nothing after a narrow defeat at Wigan.
A first half header from Wigan’s Alex Revell was enough to separate the sides and speaking to the press after the game Micky said: “In terms of endeavour and fight, faultless.
“I want to say that, together as a group, together with the fans and I have to thank them because they are probably listening to this on the way home, I thought they were fantastic.
“I want to thank them for that, I thought they drove the boys on, we kept going.
“First half, we probably lacked a bit of belief, but we had a chat for the second half, tweaked it a little bit, and came away disappointed that we’ve not got something from a very good Wigan side.
“Of course we’ve lost again, but in terms of performance, fight and endeavour, and honesty, all the brilliant qualities that you need, I couldn’t fault them.
“Perhaps we lacked a wee bit of cutting edge, but it wasn’t to be today and when you see the level of players that Wigan are bringing on and have on, and be able to lose a game by such fine margins and keep going and show that fight, that togetherness – I couldn’t fault them.”
Town had plenty of backing at the DW Stadium, with 800 supporters making the trip to Greater Manchester, and Micky was overwhelmed by the backing his side had.
He said: “When I came out I couldn’t believe how many that was here, I had to check to see if that was the home end to be honest with you!
“I had to check if there were Shrewsbury jerseys in there before I made a fool of myself and clapped the wrong end!
“For that, we thank them. Sorry we couldn’t send them away with a victory, but I don’t think we let them down in terms of fight, and there was definitely a massive improvement in there which we were looking for.”
Micky also reserved special praise for Matt Sadler, for his performance after coming in for the injured Nathaniel Knight-Percival.
“He (Knight-Percival) had just tweaked his knee, I think that might be a bit of wear and tear from an injury he’s had before.
“But I’ve got to say that I thought Sadler came in and did very, very, very well.
“Everybody who doesn’t know the kid has been on his back, but today was the real Mat Sadler. He’ll admit that, I thought he was fantastic, he ran himself into a standstill.
“When you looked around the team today, the two centre halves today, I thought they were outstanding.
“All the way right through the team, we looked a team that was looking like what we wanted and that was to come to these big arenas and represent Shrewsbury well.”