Manager delighted to move top of the league
Manager Micky Mellon was pleased after Shrewsbury Town moved top of the Sky Bet League 2 table with a 2-0 win at Oxford United on Boxing Day.Goals from James Collins and Mark Ellis inside the opening 18 minutes of the match were enough to see Town climb above Wycombe Wanderers to the summit of the table.
And Micky said: "We're obviously delighted to be on top but, like I always say, we won't get carried away.
"We know that there's an awful lot of work to be done.
"I was certainly pleased with the performance we put in at a really difficult place to come and get a result against a team which is riding very high and getting some good results.
"We came out of the traps quickly and that's a credit to the lads because we made a few sacrifices on Christmas day - we came in and trained.
"You've got to give the lads great credit for that because we believed it would give us a better chance if we came in and trained."
Striker Collins opened the scoring for Town in the 13th minute by getting on the end of Scott Vernon's cross.
Vernon returned to the side for his first appearance since coming on in the FA Cup win over Walsall in November, and Micky was pleased with the striker's performance as well as Town's second goalscorer Ellis.
"I thought he (Vernon) was brilliant," said Micky.
"I've spoken to people like him and Mark Ellis and they're people that we've spent time with after training sessions.
"They've done the extra bits of training in order to make sure that they were game ready when we needed them.
"It's a great credit to them that they made sure that they were ready for us (against Oxford) and put in such a good performance because we know that, over the course of this season, we're going to need them at some stage."
Ellis nodded home the important second goal for Town at the far post from Liam Lawrence's cross.
"He's so aggressive in the air, and when the ball goes into both boxes, you know that Mark Ellis will represent you properly, go and be aggressive and do the defensive side of things really well," said Micky.
"I was delighted to see that he got that reward with a goal.
"It's nice to be top of the league, but we've got a tough game against Wycombe coming up, so we have to get ourselves recovered and go out and do the business again."
Micky also reserved praise for the 624 travelling Salopians, who got behind their side at the Kassam Stadium and saw two Town goals as a reward.
"What a performance it was from the fans (at Oxford) as well. You speak about how the team plays but how good were the fans to come down here at this time of year and give us that kind of support from minute one was fantastic."