Gafer after Capital One Cup win
Micky Mellon was purring after Shrewsbury Town once again accounted for higher league opposition in the Capital One Cup. Blackburn Rovers were the latest scalp to be added to the list that Town started to compile last season. Blackpool, Leicester and Norwich all fell to Mellon’s exciting side before eventual winners Chelsea knocked them out in Round Four. Goals from strike pairing James Collins and Tyrone Barnett won the tie at Ewood this evening to leave the Shrews chief delighted: “It’s obviously fantastic for everyone involved at this football club that we can come to a place like this and win,” said Micky. “To put on the performance that we did is obviously very, very satisfying and the players deserve all the credit I hope will come their way because it was a special performance. Some of the passing and then some of the defending where we dug in when we had to made it a complete performance. We came here with a game plan and the way we wanted to play. We wanted to control possession and we did that. To get that first goal is always important especially when you come to a big place like this - it makes confidence flow through the whole team. I thought we could have scored more as Abs went through and had a chance to put us 2-0 up so it wasn’t a smash and grab. The lads have got to take a lot of credit and take a lot of confidence from that performance. I said on Saturday that when players have to do their jobs in certain areas they do them. I don’t go overboard when defenders win headers or cover the posts or make saves because that’s what they’re there for. We knew it was going to be the kind of game that suits us and some of the control we showed with the football and the desire to defend our goal was fantastic.”
Micky refused to be drawn on who he might fancy in the next round saying he wanted to enjoy it first – and it looked like Mrs. Mellon was in for a better night than the last time hubby returned home from a match: “My wife will tell you more than anyone that I don’t like getting beat so Saturday night was a bit of a write-off, so I apologise to her for that but that’s being a football manager’s wife I suppose. So I’m going to enjoy tonight and take it all in and I’ll do the same tomorrow. We go to Bradford next and we always do our best to win football matches. From Thursday onwards we’ll start putting stuff together that we’ve got on them. We’ve loads of stuff we’ve been building on them because the league’s our bread and butter. It’s going to be a massive occasion up there and we know we’ll have to perform like we did tonight if we’re going to take something out of it. I don’t want anyone to underestimate what it is we’re doing here. We’re fighting hard to build up the profile of this football club and I always talk about that. Results like tonight will do that no harm. The fans again were fantastic. When you come out for the warm up and see them there in their numbers again. I mean it’s a long way isn’t it for a Tuesday night and it costs a lot of money to follow your team around? They were magnificent tonight and I hope they enjoyed it.”