Micky looks forward to the trip to the Ricoh
Shrewsbury Town face a tough trip to Coventry City on Saturday, on the back of their 2-1 victory over Huddersfield Town in the EFL Cup.Coventry beat Town 3-0 at the Ricoh last season and the Town boss is hoping to put things right this time around.
“They’re one of the biggest clubs in the division,” Micky told the press.
“Fantastic stadium. Always a good place to go. We didn’t play well there last year at all. It’s something that we want to make sure we fix this year and go there and represent ourselves and the football club much better than we did last time. There’s plenty of motivation to go there and do better.
“We knew it was going to be a hard start, but it’s always going to be tough. It’s a tough challenge in League One, there’s some big clubs in this division who are shelling out some big money for players. So, you know the size of the task, but we’re keen to make sure we’re not afraid of the challenge.”
AJ Leitch-Smith, Shaun Whalley and Louis Dodds all came off with knocks on Saturday, but Micky is optimistic that they will be fit for Saturday.
“AJ had a tightened hamstring and the other lads came off with knocks as well, which you’re going to get,” said Micky.
“It’s always a difficult one. You’re stuck in between whether you make changes to rest people or you roll with it again and you get a couple of injuries. It’s always better in hindsight, but I don’t expect all of them to miss Saturday.
“We haven’t done any work with the lads who played on Tuesday today. They’ve just done recovery work, which needs to be done, because they’re still recovering from Tuesday night’s game.
“They can only do so much, because you’ve got to get them recovered. Back on the grass tomorrow, do as little as you can, but get as much detail into it as you can to go and face Coventry.
“Everybody’s in the same boat, you’ve just got to do the best you can to get them prepared as best as possible. It’s a long season and this month there is something like eight games. You’ve got to factor the travelling into that.
“You’ve got to be really well prepared and try and get them ready for the next game, but that’s why you need a squad and you try and keep them fit and ready for when they’re called upon.”
After losing their opening day fixture, Town will be looking to emulate Tuesday’s cup win in order to get their first points on the board.
“It’s still very early, but we’re not going to look for excuses and say that we’re not expecting to win games of football,” said Mellon.
“But, what I think will improve is our fitness levels and our togetherness as a group and the way that we perform on the pitch.
“I’m disappointed we lost the first game, but I’m pleased that we’ve won a cup game and we’ve got a Premiership team. That’s work that’s been done now, we’ve learnt from that and we’ll move onto the next game now, which will be a tough game at Coventry.”
Micky Mellon worked hard this summer to try and sign established League One player and he’s hoping that will help when his team visit the bigger grounds.
“I think a lot of them have played in these big stadiums before, but we’ll go there and be composed about it, and not get too high and too low and know the job that needs to be done,” said Micky.
“What I’m pleased about, is that we’ve done what we said we were going to do and build a team that can go to these places and match these teams.
“I think too often last season, at vital times, we just seemed to bend a little bit and that’s the reason why we recruited the way that we have this season, because we’ve got players who can hang in there and make other teams bend.
“That experience is with us now, lads that were with us last year have gained experience and they’re now another season in this league, so there’s more and more people in the dressing room that know what’s required in order to win games of football in League One.”
Micky admitted that he was close to finalising deals for two players, but nothing was over the line yet.
“I think they might be done, but again not signed and sealed. We might have some news about that in the next 24 hours, but at the minute nothing has been signed,” Micky added.