Gaffer's thoughts after point picked up at Bury
Town boss Micky Mellon was pleased to see his side stretch their unbeaten league run to eight matches at Bury this afternoon. Shrewsbury twice led at Gigg Lane through a brace from Sullay Kaikai. But on each occasion, the Shakers respond to earn a share of the spoils. "I thought we were excellent in the first half," said Mellon. "I thought we could have scored a few more in the first half but I expected Bury to come back at us and they did that. They haven't got the fifth best record in the division at home for nothing. I thought Sullay's goals were fantastic and it was great for everyone in the Stadium to see what he's good at. He practices all the time so he deserved the goals today."With the game delicately poised at 2-2, the gaffer was asked how he thought the remainder of it would pan out: "Well you're always wary that they might get something because they were going all out, but I felt we could nick it on the counter. We had the opportunities to do that in the second half and with a bit more care we could have won it. They were leaving 2 v 2 on the halfway line and we were thinking that we might have been able to maybe catch them out. But they were trying for the winner themselves so both teams were looking to get the win."
We always try to win every game; I always say that. We were as good in that first half as we've been for quite a while now on the road, and we looked really pacy and carried a lot of threat. Yeah, I changed the shape of the side today but I'll continue to do that. Overall I'm happy. I would have liked the three points and a clean sheet but I don't think anyone could say that we didn't deserve the point today."
Goalkeeper Mark Halstead made a number of saves in the 2nd half with one in particular from a set-play bringing applause right around Gigg Lane. "That was a great save but I think he (Mark) has read it, but we've got very capable goalkeepers here and we know they'll each be ready if called upon. I'm keen though to get the point across to anyone at home that it wasn't a backs against the wall battle. It was a very organised defensive performance against a team that were rolling the dice. If we could have just been a bit more clinical on the counter we could have punished them. But I think all in all we'll respect the point and move on."
Micky wouldn't be drawn on results at the other end of the table but accepted the gap between his side and fourth from bottom Doncaster was an important one: "I keep saying that it's nice to have that gap but other than that it means nothing to me. We want to try to continue to improve this team and so the players won't be allowed to take their foot off the gas. We'll work on the things that we didn't do so well on today but at the same time concentrate on some of the things we were excellent at. We'll go over it all and try and prepare the players for Friday's game against Port Vale."