Micky Mellon will always have soft spot for Shrewsbury

Mellon departed Greenhous Meadow last week after two-and-a-half years in charge of Salop.

The ex-Fleetwood manager guided Town to promotion in his first campaign and to League One survival last term.

But a difficult start to this season saw Mellon leave to take up the vacant managerial post at Tranmere Rovers.

"I had a fantastic time at Shrewsbury and loved it," Mellon told shrewsburytown.com.

"Loved the people, loved the fans, especially block 19, who I want to give a special mention to because I think they are the heartbeat of the club and they always gave us terrific support.

"I will always have a soft spot for Shrewsbury and always look for their results and always want them to do well.

"It's a great club, it's a great town. I've got so many good memories there, met unbelievable people. I was involved in some tough times as well with the likes of Lloyd Burton, having to read at his funeral, it was really humbling that I was asked to do that. To be able to do that will stay with me forever.

"I loved every minute of it and it will always be a club that I will hold in very high regard and a Town that I will absolutely come back and visit again."

Mellon believes he left the club in a better state and that Town have the talent on the pitch to start climbing the table.

"If I had said to anybody that I would have got the club to the stage that I left it, and the moments that we had in between that, they would probably have snatched my hand off," he added.

"I definitely leave the club in a much better situation as a football club and I believe if that group of players can cut out the individual errors or don't get punished as much for them, then there is a really talented group in there that hopefully will go on and win many games.

"I think there is a lot of talent in the building there, it will be up to somebody else now to try and get that out of them, but it did become difficult to get those victories, for the reasons we kept saying.

"We never practised playing a game where we lost a goal to an individual error, but I know that's football and that's how it is and hopefully the individual errors will become less and less and, with the quality in that group, they will do well."

And Mellon, who was heavily involved in the club's community work, insists he will be back at Greenhous Meadow.

"When everything all settles down I hope that my time there will be looked back on fondly, because that's certainly the way I look at it already," Mellon said.

"I enjoyed it. It was very challenging and I've improved as a manager. I was able to get involved in the community and get to know the people of Shrewsbury fantastically well and was involved in a lot of things that will stay with me forever.

"It's had a massive impact on me and my family's life and we would like to thank the people of Shrewsbury for making us so welcome. But, we won't be strangers. We will come back again, hopefully both in football and socially.

"You can't spend so much time in a place like Shrewsbury and have so much involvement in what was going on there and not hold the place in high regard. It's a fantastic place with great people and it has a smashing football club, which is run very well from the top."