Junior Brown expected to stay at Shrewsbury

The 27-year-old enjoyed an impressive debut campaign at Greenhous Meadow, but was forced to miss the last eight games of the season with a knee ligament injury.

Brown spent the majority of the season filling in at left-back with his performances making him a Player of the Year contender.

And, while he's out of contract in the summer, Mellon is planning for the future with the former Mansfield man in his squad.

The Town boss said: "When you're bringing a player in from the league you've just been in – from a team that didn't do particularly well – a lot of people would have raised their eyebrows.

"But I'd worked with him before and with the qualities he's got I knew he could gain a foothold very quickly. I knew he would make an impact and he certainly has done that.

"I believe the fans enjoy watching him play because he's all action and he does things well in both the defensive third and the attacking one.

"He gets forward well, he's tricky and he can dribble but we can also allow him to be left one against one so he's been a big plus."

Despite the League One campaign having finished, Mellon revealed Brown is stepping up his recovery from injury to ensure he is fully fit in time for pre-season.

The Town chief continued: "He'll be ready – he's doing some stuff at the moment that you can tell he's getting towards being ready.

"But he's got the whole summer to recover and he'll be fine."

Meanwhile, Mellon admitted he had mixed emotions after it was confirmed Shrewsbury had avoided relegation and retained their League One status for another year.

He added: "I don't know if relief is the right word. It was a mixture of emotions because I want us to play dazzling football and I don't think we did it enough.

"I'm realistic to know there are a lot of factors involved towards achieving that.

"We'll try to bring what everyone wants, which is to watch a fantastic Shrewsbury team that continues to challenge at League One level."