Mellon: Cup had no effect

Shrewsbury manager Micky Mellon refused to blame his side's Capital One Cup heroics for their 1-0 defeat at Southend.

The Shrews, who will soon take on Chelsea in the League Cup after seeing off Championship leaders Norwich in midweek, were outdone by an early Shaq Coulthirst header. Shrewsbury also had substitute Andy Mangan sent off five minutes from time after he was shown a second yellow card for a poorly timed aerial challenge on Southend goalkeeper Daniel Bentley. But Mellon felt the loss had nothing to do with the clash against the Canaries. "We travelled up on Friday and stayed in a nice hotel so I'm not making any excuses," said Mellon. "We rested the players up on Wednesday and did the same again on Thursday. "We just weren't smart or streetwise enough out there. We should have been more aggressive when we were trying to win the ball back and we didn't give their keeper anywhere near enough to do. "We never really got in behind them and never really got hold of the ball and I felt it was a pretty lame performance, especially in that final third. "It would be unfair to say the lads didn't have a go but I think some of them will be disappointed with that." The damage had already been done before Mangan received his marching orders, with on-loan Tottenham striker Coulthirst heading home the only goal of the game after just two minutes. The striker was picked out by John White's right-wing cross and brilliantly headed the ball over Shrews keeper Jason Leutwiler and in to the bottom right-hand corner of the net. Coulthirst then had two further headers kept out by Leutwiler and Shrewsbury also came close to scoring when Jean-Louis Akpa-Akpro fired against the left post from long range. Akpa-Akpro also wasted Shrewsbury's best chance of the game in the second half when he headed Jordan Clark's left-wing cross over the crossbar from close range. That made sure of a fourth successive win for the fourth-placed Shrimpers and also maintained the unbeaten run of Phil Brown's lucky shirt. "It's definitely my favourite shirt at the moment and I'll have to wear it next weekend now as well," said the Southend manager. "It's even lucky the way I got it because I went in to Southend high street and liked the shirt straight away. "When I saw it had 75 per cent off I liked it even more. "I've worn it five times now and I think we've won all five games. "I didn't wear it after the first of those wins and we actually lost so I decided to bring it back. "But I've washed it in between so it doesn't smell and thankfully it worked again. "Being honest I don't think we really played that bad but it's a good sign that we're still able to get the three points."