Gaffer's thoughts after the Bury game
Micky Mellon was deflated after Shrewsbury fell to another stoppage time defeat at Bury. The manager felt his team should have managed the game better in the closing stages at Gigg Lane:“It is a sore one. We are very disappointed. You have to have good game management. We have to see it through after such a crazy game that it’s been. We would have been happy with a point. It was a physical battle, we went in fits and starts, we didn’t create an awful lot of chances but we didn’t have a great deal against us. It was just one of those games. It was always going to be like that, but you have to manage it better at the end. It is about defending today, we had to get the moments right at this level. We would have been pleased to have taken anything away from a tough place like this. It was heading towards that but we weren’t able to manage it out and we got punished.”
Both sides lost a man to a red card and there appeared to be a scuffle in the tunnel at half-time but Mellon had no complaints and believed captain Adam El-Abd deserved to be dismissed:
“There is a bit of history between the two clubs because we have run really tight with each other for a few seasons now so we expected it to be close. It is League One football and everyone is desperate for points and victories. So as long as no one is getting hurt or anything then we just need to get on with the game.”
“The way that the games gone, you know everyone’s going to be walking a tight rope. He picked up a booking in the first half and any other challenge you make after that you will be running the risk of a red card. No complaints, I think it was a foul but I don’t think it was malicious.”
Danny Mayor impressed for Bury and scored both goals for the Shakers but Mellon insisted his goals could have been avoided:
“There are always things we can do to avoid the goals. We knew he was right footed, we have the bodies there to be able to go out and deal with him but he has bent it into the top corner. But we spoke before the game and we knew what we had to do not to lose a goal like that. For the winner, we had a lot of bodies around the ball and I don’t know how we can have a one two played around us there and then the lad has put it in. We are disappointed with the amount of people we had around the ball and we had to do better in that situation.”
Shrewsbury pushed for the win in the end which ultimately led to their downfall but the former Fleetwood boss believed going for the win was the right thing to do at the time:
“There were opportunities that we had to manage the game out but we never took them and we tried to force a winner at that stage. At the end of the day, if we would have scored people would have said it was the right thing to do but in hindsight you think just take the point in a madly contested game and four points from two games would have been great. It was mayhem at that stage. It is about having a cool head in those moments but we didn’t in that moment.”
Shrewsbury have now just managed just the single clean sheet from seven league games and the 44-year-old admits they will need to improve on this to get more results:
“We have just spoken about that. You need to do the basics to give yourself a chance. Then you don’t have to score two or three every game. So we have to do better with getting clean sheets but we are well aware of that and we are working hard on it. We know we have to get better but I think everybody knows that anyway.”