Micky Mellon: More of the same from Town

Mellon's men more than matched another Championship side, Cardiff City, on Saturday as a late James Collins equaliser earned the Shrews a 2-2 draw.

And Gary Rowett's Blues continue the high-profile friendlies tonight, as Mellon looks to pit his men against teams from the division above.

The Town boss is more than confident that his side are capable of mixing it with the standard of opposition the St Andrew's outfit will offer.

He said: "It will be another tough test. I expect a really tough game. But that's what we wanted in pre-season.

"We want to know what the lads can't do and where we need to improve. We'll be put under pressure in certain areas and that will help us.

"But we also want to see how good we are with the football – and we are going to have to be good with it because we're playing against Championship-quality players.

"So it will be interesting to see how we can cause them problems. We want to carry on our good work from Saturday."

Birmingham are also in action at Northampton Town tonight, but Mellon insists it's of little matter what squad Rowett and his staff select for the Meadow.

The boss added: "It makes no difference to us, because whichever players get sent to play for Birmingham will be Championship players.

"I want us stretched. I want us tested so that we can work on things we are struggling with. Come Millwall on August 8, I want no surprises about something we needed to work on."

Mellon provided injury updates on Shaun Whalley (groin), Mark Halstead (knee) and Matt Tootle (tight hamstrings).

He said: "Shaun trained yesterday so, hopefully, we can get him his first match minutes under his belt tonight.

"Same with Mark, but the game may come too soon. We'll see how Matt's groin has settled and see if we can get him some more time."