Manager wants Town to bounce back from Tuesday night
Manager Micky Mellon expects another difficult game when Shrewsbury Town travel to Hartlepool United in League Two on Saturday.Pools have made a poor start to the new season, winning just one of their five league games so far, but Town head to Victoria Park looking to bounce back from their first defeat of the season at Preston North End on Tuesday night.
“We’ll be going up to Hartlepool to give a good account of ourselves, but we know it’s going to be a tough game regardless of what their form has been,” said Micky.
“It’s always a tough place to go and we will need to be somewhere near our best to take something from up there.”
Despite going out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy to League One side Preston in midweek, Micky was proud of the effort his side put in at Deepdale and believes they were unfortunate not to force the game to penalties.
“On Tuesday night, there was absolutely nothing between the two teams, we can probably come out a little bit disappointed to not have at least taken it to penalties,” he said.
“The lads’ work rate was unbelievable. We tried changing things around to give people some match time, we changed the way we play a little bit as well.
“We’re delighted with the way the lads have applied themselves so quickly to the way that we want things to be done.
“At this stage you’ve got to be careful because they’re not going to get any fitter at the minute, they’re going to get more tired so we have to look after their recoveries after games.
“It’s down to the appetite and hard work of the players to do well.”
Town will be able to welcome back captain Liam Lawrence for the game at the weekend now the midfielder has served his three-match suspension.
“He (Lawrence) brings that experience and quality to the team that’s needed every week,” said Micky.
“He has the leadership qualities to make sure the people around about him represent us correctly, because we know we’ve got to keep our standards high.”
Micky has also been nominated for the League Two manager of the month award for August following Town’s good start to the season, and he says the award is a reward for the hard work put in by everyone at the Club.
“I’m pleased for the players, the coaching staff and the chairman because there’s been a lot of hard work go into it,” said Micky.
“I’m pleased for the fans in the way they’ve supported us and spurred us on.
“But I’ll be the last person that gets carried away with anything like that, there’s still an awful lot of work to be done.
“It’s great that somebody has said that the work that has been done in August is worth recognition, so the Club can be pleased about that.”