The Gaffer looks ahead to the Checkatrade Trophy
Shrewsbury Town Manager Micky Mellon is hoping that Tuesday’s Checkatrade Trophy game could be the win which kick-starts Town’s season.Town travel to Scunthorpe in what is the second game of three round robin matches.
Town have already on The Iron in the league this season and Micky Mellon’s side will look to gain revenge for the 1-0 defeat last month.
“It was a very tight game, they scored just before half time and came out second half and made it very difficult for us to break them down,” Micky told ShrewsWeb.
“They’ve gone on and they’ve continued to win and they are top of the table, so it shows you that they are getting results.
“We will go up there and we are going to try and win a game of football, and try and keep improving at the things we know we’ve got to get better at."
Scunthorpe currently sit top of League One and Micky admitted that a win against the high flyers in the club, could be the much needed lift his players are looking for.
“Frustration is the mood at the minute,” said Micky.
“Having drawn three games and not having quite got that winning goal has been frustrating for everybody, players and the staff.
“But, we’ve just got to keep working at it, keep working at the things that we know that we’ve got to do in order to give ourselves a good chance of winning football, and that is what we are trying to do.
“I think what we will do is pick the best available team that we believe can get us a result on Tuesday in order to try and build on the three draws and try and get a win.”
Town have been incredibly unlucky with injuries so far this season and Micky acknowledged that his first team squad was down to the bare bones ahead of the trip to Scunthorpe.
“We’ve got Louis Dodds who has had to come off on Saturday with his hamstring,” Mellon said.
“Shaun Whalley’s got his calf that he’s still got, he will be 5-6 weeks. We’ve got Ryan McGivern away on international duty. Joe Riley’s still got a swollen knee. Abu Ogogo isn’t training yet so we will see how he is later in the week.
“I don’t think we’ve got the numbers, with injuries that we have, to be able to tinker too much with it. We will make changes to give us a chance of winning the game or because we have injuries, but we’ll go up with the strongest possible team that we have and try and get a result.”
Meanwhile, Antoni Sarcevic has fully recovered from his injury and the Gaffer confirmed that Mark Halstead would be given his first start of the season in place of Jayson Leutwiler.
“I’d like to give him a go, I think that is probably one change we will make, giving Mark a runout, because under the rules of the tournament we can,” said Micky.
“I think he deserves a runout anyway and it’s good to keep the goalkeepers active because it’s difficult for them to get into the team, so Mark will play tomorrow.
“It’s hard because the goalkeeper’s probably got to be suspended or injured or suffer a series loss of form before you make a change because it’s probably the last one you want to be forced into changing.
“But, he keeps himself fit and Danny works really hard with the goalies, so he will be ready to step in.”