Gaffer pleased after home win and a clean sheet
Micky Mellon was relieved after Shrewsbury recorded their first home league win of the season against Blackpool. However the former Blackpool midfielder feels Shrewsbury still have room to improve:
“We are disappointed it has taken so long but it is great to get the home win off our back. You could see how much confidence the first goal gave us. As soon as we got it we relaxed and it made such an impact on us.”
“We were building momentum but missing chances. When you don’t take the chances you get nervy so there was such a relief when the ball went in. The players were feeling the pressure of not winning at home so it was nice to put that right today and we can push on. We all know how good John Louis is. They were two great finishes and two great assists to find him. We had a plan today to get at Blackpool down the sides but it didn’t work as well as I wanted. We changed it up a bit and got higher up the pitch and it paid off for us in the end with two goals.”
Mellon had to make a number of changes to a Shrewsbury side that had picked up some injury but the 43-year-old felt the replacements were fantastic:
“Jayson Leutwiler got injured on Tuesday. He was never going to be in contention today but we didn’t want that known. He will miss the game on Tuesday too but Mark Halstead was brilliant stepping in today. It makes you wonder whether it was just meant to be for Mark today getting his debut against his old club and getting the clean sheet too. He will be proud of his performance. Jermaine also has a bad back so he was rested today and Liam hasn’t trained all week so he had to miss out. Jermaine may have a chance to be back to fitness by Tuesday but we will just have to see how he is over the next 48 hours. But the players that stepped in today did a fantastic job.”
The adventurous formation paid off for Shrewsbury today as they netted twice:
“I want my team to score goals. The first thing on my mind is attack so without being reckless I wanted to get forward as much as we could today and it worked. We have a lot of good lads here and James Collins came off the bench today and made a good impact.”
Sullay Kaikai put in an impressive performance which Mellon was quick to praise:
“He brings a smile to your face. When you see guys like that with such ability it is fantastic. He dribbles so well, I am old fashioned and I love watching a dribbler like him. The fans have a buzz when he gets on the ball which is brilliant.”
Shrewsbury appear to be in the ascendancy after winning four of their last five games in all competitions but Mellon still feels they have more in reserve:
“We want to win every game that we play. Today it was important to get the result and the confidence will carry through to next week. No matter who we play I will never go into a match trying to hang on and draw, we will have a right good go every time and this week will be the same.”
“We have won the last three of four in the league but I think there is much more to come. I think the exciting thing is how much more we can bring, we have another gear that we can go up to. It was difficult today because the lads were desperate to get a result for the fans so it was edgy but we can certainly build on the performance. I am not completely satisfied with how we played but I never am because there is always room to improve.”