Fight or go – Shrewsbury Town boss's ultimatum to Dom Smith

The 20-year-old signed a new two-year contract this week to commit himself to the club until 2018.

Smith has now played 18 first-team games in his first season at this level and is set to retain his place for tomorrow's visit of Scunthorpe with Zak Whitbread sidelined.

But the homegrown academy graduate, who has admitted his loan spell at Tamworth last season saw him go from boy to man, had to come through Town's 'school of hard knocks' first.

"Before we sent him on loan he was a bit stand-offish in training," said Mellon.

"We said 'if you don't start knocking the first team around, you'll be out of here'.

"You fight or you go. He came back and in his first training session he started to knock the first team around.

"They started to get annoyed so I watched him and thought 'if you go under now, I won't forget that' – and he didn't.

"It didn't bother Dom, he still does it now. That tells you lots about his character because you wonder about their chances playing against men in front of a crowd.

"But he certainly started knocking people about and we thought 'we've got a boy with the right character here'."

But Mellon has warned Smith he must keep getting better.

"Dom's well aware he has to keep improving, because if he doesn't we'll bring someone in," said the boss.

Mellon believes Smith will be regarded differently now he's a senior pro.

"To lots of people, he's not 'wee Dom' any more. He's going to be judged as one of the lads and, if he plays poorly, people will be all over him," he said.

"Let's see how he reacts to that and to things in games.

"There's a long way to go, but certainly the signs are very encouraging."