Manager's thoughts ahead of Brewers test
Manager Micky Mellon insists Shrewsbury Town have learned their lesson from last weekend’s defeat at Exeter City with a good week’s training ahead of Saturday’s game against Burton Albion.Town take on the second-placed Brewers in the Sky Bet League 2 fixture this weekend (3pm kick-off) at the Greenhous Meadow looking to bounce back with victory.
A win for the Shrews would see them climb above Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s side and into the automatic promotion spots in the table.
And Micky is anticipating another exciting clash at the top end of the table against Burton this weekend.
“We have things that we know we have to work on to make us a better team, and we go into this week and believe we’re a better team than we were last week because of the lessons that we learned,” said Micky.
“We’ve had a terrific week of training and the lads have been brilliant.
“We know that the warning signs are there (with Burton being second) and we have just got to make sure that we concentrate on ourselves.
“We have to focus on the things that we know we can do well.”
Burton will head into the match buoyed by wins over the other two sides in the top three –Wycombe Wanders and Luton Town - in their last two games.
The Brewers beat Wycombe 3-1 at Adams Park before recording a 1-0 win over Luton at the Pirelli Stadium.
And Micky sees Saturday’s game as another exciting one for his side.
“They are all exciting games because we’re at the right end of the table,” he said.
“Everything means so much for us right about now and it is a game that we’re all looking forward to it and we’ll be prepared for it.”
Town have seen Jack Grimmer return back to Fulham from his loan spell this week although Micky responded by bringing in Josh Passley from Craven Cottage on Thursday.
And the Shrews boss believes Josh is another exciting talent to have at the Club.
“Josh has got all the attributes to be a real top player,” said Micky.
“He comes from a fantastic upbringing at Fulham. He is a terrific athlete, technically very good, powerful, blistering pace and has bags of energy so he can go up and down that right hand side for us and keep us on the front foot with attacking in the system we play.
“I’m excited about him coming here to our club.
“We know that the players we bring in now are going to bring some energy out of the group and keep it moving forward because it’s been brilliant to be fair.
“We just feel like we need to balance it out a little bit because you know what it’s like at this time of the year we have to ensure we have adequate replacements.”
Micky also revealed that forward Andy Mangan has been back in training following recent knee injury problems although Andy Robinson is still some way off.
“Andy Mangan has been training, he probably could have joined in a bit more but we didn’t want to over work him,” said Micky.
“Andy Robinson is struggling, though, and we’re not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel with his injury.”