FORMER Claret Micky Mellon says Sean Dyche does not need a trophy to know he has done “a fantastic job” at Burnley, because promotion is the ultimate prize.

The Clarets boss was surprisingly overlooked for honours at the annual League Managers Association awards dinner earlier this week.

Dyche was shortlisted for the Championship prize and was tipped to scoop the overall manager of the year award for steering Burnley to the Premier League on a shoestring.

Nigel Pearson was named Championship manager of the year, for guiding Leicester City to the title, and Brendan Rodgers won the overall prize.

But Mellon says Dyche’s omission from the top honours should not be a reflection of his achievement at Turf Moor.

“To say I’m shocked would be an understatement, but I’m sure the prize of getting promotion to the Premier League will quickly help him forget about not getting probably the credit he deserves from his peers,” said the former Burnley midfielder, who was this week named the new manager of League Two side Shrewsbury Town.

“I see the job that he has done there as fantastic, because I know know the resources that some of the clubs have got in that league. To keep that group playing the way they did he deserves an awful lot of credit.

“Do you need a trophy to show for what he has done? I don’t know if that’s what you want but I’m surprised there wasn’t more recognition from the LMA to congratulate him on that. Because when you look at the job managers do you’ve got to look at the resources they’ve got and not just that they’ve won the league.

“Some of the managers have the resources that you would expect them to achieve that.

“Burnley have gone up with the resources of a side that you would expect for a mid-table finish.”

However, Mellon believes Pearson was rightly credited for turning the hangover of last season’s play-off heartache on its head.

“We all saw the unbelievable scenes at Watford where Leicester had a penalty in the last minute to go to Wembley and hit the bar, and from that Watford went and scored,” he said.

“To pick up any group of players – and the same group of players – and galvanise them again into delivering the performances they have this season I would have to say what Nigel’s done is up there with Sean.

“With the level of disappointment that would have no doubt been in the group, other managers may have changed the playing staff to get a fresh mentality.

“But he has been able to turn it around and use last season as a motivator.

“He’s looked at himself too, because he has spent all season watching the games from the stands.

“He’s done an awful lot of good there. He hasn’t brought any new players into that group really.

“So to manage to pull all that back together, under a lot of pressure through not achieving promotion the previous season, and blow the league away is a fantastic job.”