Gaffer pleased with sides patient performance to earn victory over Hartlepool
Micky Mellon praised his side’s patience in their 3-0 win against bottom of the league Hartlepool United today at Greenhous Meadow.The victory and other results means that Town climb one place to third and now sit in the automatic promotion places behind Wycombe and Burton.
Town went into the break level but after Andy Mangan scored on 50 minutes, the game was much more comfortable for the home side.
Micky said: “We’re seeing this a lot now, what we’ve got to do as a collective, as fans, as staff and as players is understand that the game lasts for 90 minutes.
“I know that with the quality I’ve got in my group that eventually we will open teams up and that’s what has happened and we scored some terrific goals today in a thoroughly good performance and a massive three points.”
Andy Mangan was highly commended for his performance today by his manager, “He’s a terrific player, I don’t have to come out here and tell anybody who wants to know anything about Shrewsbury what they already know. He is a good player,” said Micky.
“He has been struggling with a knee injury but we felt that today we had to go for it and that has paid dividends today, he’s been terrific and got two good goals and James Collins’ was a cracker.
“We have to nurse him along and we know the amount of training he has done and we know by measuring that what he will be capable of doing in games. It’s just about making sure that he is game ready because you saw today what a massive contribution he gives us.”
The game itself was a very open affair in the first half, to which Micky felt it was an even contest.
“I think we weren’t as fluid as we wanted, we were a little bit sloppy with the ball and we weren’t finding the gaps in between enough.
“They had a few long range shots but fair play to them, I thought they came here and had a go.
“I always knew that the second half, when we tweaked a few things and moved a few things around, we started to find the gaps and the little pockets that we are so good in and have players who can operate in them. Thankfully we got the goals in the end.”
However, the afternoon was tarnished thanks to the injury to midfielder James Wesolowski on his return from a hamstring injury that kept him out for a month.
“We’ll assess that over the next 24 hours but it doesn’t look good at the minute. I think he has just twisted his knee on the pitch so it’s just come back to haunt us a little bit there, but we’ll find out more over the next 24 hours.”
On a brighter note, Wycombe, Newport and Burton all dropped points today making the 3-0 win against League Two’s basement side much sweeter.
Micky said: “I have never really worried about what anyone else is doing and that won’t change today.
“I just take care of our own business. We’ll take care of what we do and try and keep focused on what we’re doing and we’ll keep looking forward.”