Mellon: Our character was key

Micky Mellon lauded Shrewsbury's character after fighting back to win at Dagenham despite playing most of the second half with ten men.

Liam Lawrence's injury-time penalty won it for the 10-man Shrews who had Jermaine Grandison sent off soon after the break. Andy Mangan - who scored in Town's 2-1 League Cup defeat to Chelsea on Tuesday - levelled with 20 minutes left after Billy Bingham's early opener. And Mellon was pleased with the victory and praised the contribution of Mangan. He said: "I think the most satisfying thing as a manager is even though we had a few set backs - like losing a goal early and going down to ten men - the group kept playing their football. "There aren't too many teams who will play with two up front and three in midfield but we trust the players. "And to find the energy levels that they have, after a game on Tuesday and the long journey down yesterday shows they have tremendous guts and desire to want to do well and win games of football for this football club. "The goal Andy scores is going to be up there for goal of the season, it is a terrific strike. "He has caught it sweet as a nut and it was going to take an effort like that to beat the goalkeeper today because fair play he has made six or seven outrageous saves." Daggers boss Wayne Burnett was disappointed at conceding so late in the game and branded the defending for the penalty incident as comical. He said: "We started the game very well, we were on the front foot and it is quite an even game in the first half. "I felt that the sending off changed the game. I said to one of the coaching staff it is not a good thing that it has happened. "Shrewsbury raised their game and we got on the back foot. We sat back and kind of give them the initiative I guess. "It was a fantastic finish by them to equalise and when you are not winning games you can become a little bit apprehensive, nervous and anxious and it showed in our play and we have to change that. "It is very disappointing, the first goal is a fantastic finish by them but the second goal was comical defending. "You can't touch people in the box, you touch people in the box and they will go down." Breaking news, transfer gossip, line ups and goal alerts from your football club - delivered direct to your mobile. Sign up for Sky Sports Alerts