Town worthy of point from difficult game at Luton
Town Manager Micky Mellon heaped praise on his side’s dogged performance as they left Kenilworth Road with a hard earned point.With the Live Sky Camera’s in the gantry, Shrewsbury put on a battling display for 90 minutes, with the last 20 of them being played with only ten men after Nathaniel Knight-Percival was dismissed for two quick bookings.
“I thought Connor (Goldson) and Mark (Ellis) were absolutely immense tonight as were the goalkeeper,” said Mellon.
“I have to give special praise for Cameron Gayle as well who I thought was sensational and I’m delighted for him.
“He deserves a lot of credit to step in and give a performance like that.
“I’m really, really pleased for him.”
“But they all dug in.”
“You have to be determined and dig in to get results in a really difficult league and I think tonight, the lads showed a different side to them and what they’re all about.”
Kenilworth Road is known for its partisan support, something Micky and his staff were all too aware about come the final whistle.
“Partisan crowd, that’s a bit of an understatement.
“Being over by the dugouts I don’t think we’ve ever had as much abuse in our lives to be fair.
“But it’s a club I have a lot of respect for and they’re determined to win every game they take part in and they deserve a lot of respect for that, but so do Shrewsbury.
“We’ve come here and gone toe to toe with them.”
Despite the solid showing at the back, Town failed to register a shot on target out of their 13 attempts, something the Manager isn’t too concerned about.
“We never worked the goalkeeper too much but on the other side did they really work us? No.
“There were a couple of things Jason had to do but nothing he’s not comfortably capable of dealing with.
“These games are very, very tight and the teams are quite evenly matched.
“We’ve had three of them now and there haven’t been many chances in them.
“We knew it would be evenly matched like Saturday and it’s going to be something like a piece of good fortune or a wee bit of quality that will separate these sides.”
The busy and testing festive period has seen Town remain in the automatic promotion places after a tough run of fixtures, which has allowed Micky to learn a bit more about the players, the majority of whom he bought into the club last summer.
“I’ve learnt a lot from these games.
“I realise my players will dig in and go toe to toe with the teams that are doing well and its important to keep that points tally ticking over.”
And with the January transfer window now open, the manager has seen enough to know it would take a very special player to improve this group, but hasn’t ruled anything out.
“This is an ongoing project and if we are to continue to move the club forward and we believe someone is available and fits in with what we do then we will always try to improve things.
“At the minute I believe we have a really good, strong squad.
“We did a lot of good recruitment in the summer and I don’t believe there is any need to tear up anything now and start again.
“It’s going to have to be some kind of player to make us better because I think we have a really good group.”