Shrewsbury Town's kids deserve a chance
Shrewsbury Town boss Micky Mellon insisted that the youngsters who featured in friendlies against Solihull Moors and Stourbridge deserved their opportunity.
A host of academy stars were handed the chance to figure for Salop's first team in the warm-up games against the non-league sides.
Ethan Jones, who scored his first senior goal in the Birmingham City win last week, started at Solihull.
Fellow youngsters John McAtee, Kaiman Anderson, Callum Grogan and Callum Burton came on from the bench.
On McAtee, who was making his first appearance in a senior Town squad, Mellon said: "We had him here first year and he's come back and moved up into second year and he's done terrific.
"We brought three of the young ones on at Solihull who all deserved to be here because of the performance levels they've been putting in.
"Like we keep saying, we 'll keep progressing them as much as we can because we rely heavily on our youth here and it's something that we're keen to do."
Monday night's defeat at Stourbridge was another chance to blood the youngsters, with Ryan Sears and Chris Gallagher two other Town prospects to make it from the bench.
Mellon added: "We got some young lads into this environment to see what it's about. We got a lot of young lads through, that's positive, I feel I got really what I expected from the Stourbridge match."
