Micky Mellon tells Shrewsbury Town: Cut out mistakes
Shrewsbury Town boss Micky Mellon wants his players to learn from their mistakes as they look to bounce back from the midweek defeat at Charlton.
Mellon was frustrated as individual errors cost his side at The Valley on Tuesday night but insisted nobody is immune to making errors.
The early League One table has Town second-bottom and they welcome second-top Chesterfield to Greenhous Meadow tomorrow.
But the Town boss insisted his players are not 'machines' and that focus in training has been to rectify those concentration lapses. "I think the best way to explain it is that they're human beings and not machines," said the Scot.
"They make mistakes and errors and it's part and parcel of football. You don't know when they're going to happen but they do, sometimes that's the way it goes.
"The important thing is that you recognise that and you make sure players know it - you go through it step by step with what they should've done.
"You've got to keep the message solid and say 'we must expect to do better in these situations.'"
Salop are also yet to score their first League goal this term after three outings. But some impressive performances – and a number of goalscoring opportunities across the fixtures – mean the boss believes goals are just around the corner.
Mellon is able to call on the returning AJ Leitch-Smith for the visit of high-flying Chesterfield. The former Port Vale forward has not featured since scoring his first Salop goal in last week's 2-1 victory over Huddersfield Town in the EFL Cup, where he came off at half-time with a hamstring injury.
"I don't think there's any doubt about that (one of the chances will go)," added Mellon.
"He will definitely be in contention, because he's important to us
"We know where we need to get better and if we can make teams defend and make them make the errors that we made, and put the ball in the box and asks more questions, then we'll be fine.
"I speak to them about how well we got the wingbacks high, but on certain areas I'm able to say 'well what about this' and 'what about a little bit of movement there' and 'can we get more bodies into these areas'.
"If that cross goes in from Joe Riley 'why need people running on and getting on the end of it.'"
