Micky gives his thoughts on the EFL Trophy defeat
Micky Mellon was disappointed after Shrewsbury Town slumped to another defeat in the Football League Trophy against Cambridge United who are rock bottom of League 2:
“We are disappointed to lose any game of football. We wanted to give some people a run out as you saw in the starting line-up. We didn’t want to get Adam El-Abd suspended because he is on four bookings and we want him for Saturday. We wanted to give Ethan a run out too amongst others. We went with the aim to give a few players a run out but we just never quite got it going. But to be fair to the group it isn’t a team that we have worked with as a group together. It is just players that needed a game to try and rest the rest of the group because we have played so much football.”
“I wanted to keep most of them off the pitch because we want to save their legs. When players like Deegan and Dodds went on you saw how important they are to us because the tempo went up. The quality in the final third has to improve. We have to have more composure and get the crosses and passes in the final third right. We have to be first to the crosses that come into the box too.”
The 44-year-old was frustrated with the manor his side conceded the only goal of the contest:
“The goal we conceded we are disappointed with because we worked on it. Yesterday we worked on making sure we picked people up in the box because of what happened on Saturday. We worked and worked yesterday so that is very disappointing. So early on a cross goes into the box and people are free again. We will have to work on it again.”
Mellon defended his players who started after the defeat and felt it was difficult for them to gel when they haven’t played many minutes together:
“I thought we had a few chances. Second half we had most of the ball but when we got it into the areas we weren’t good enough with it. We have to show composure and find the final pass and tonight we weren’t good enough. To give the players like Mo and Ethan a run out was important to us to keep moving them on. We had Sadler playing at centre back when he is a left back. We had McGivern away on international duty and we had big Abs one card away from suspension so we had to priorities Saturday for that. They have come in and had a blast at it. I am not going to stand here and say they did really well but they gave everything that they had for us. We wanted it to go well for the youngsters tonight to give them that exposure to first team environment but it wasn’t to be.”
The home fans made their discontent heard at full time when boos rang around the New Meadow and the former Fleetwood boss took full responsibility for the result:
“We lost a game of football so everyone is disappointed and there is no doubt about that. But we have to be reasonable about it and keep getting behind the boys as much as we can because we need the fans. It is football and it is fashionable to boo when the team isn’t doing well and that is the way it goes sometimes. But we need to take that on the chin. I am the manager and I will take the responsibility for it because that is what happens in football.”
With the transfer window slamming shut tomorrow, Mellon hasn’t ruled out adding to his squad:
“We want to concentrate on what we have got and work hard with that. Behind the scenes backing up that first team isn’t quite as strong as what we would like it to be but we will see what happens and if there is some business to be done then we will speak about it. We are trying to build something and players like Jim O’Brien and Shaun Whalley are coming back to fitness so it gives us some options again.”