Gary Peters today began the countdown to his 100th game at the Shrewsbury Town helm by insisting: “The plan is bang on schedule.”

Saturday’s high noon FA Cup showdown with Hereford will bring the ton up for Peters, pictured, who is also within one week of celebrating his two year anniversary at Gay Meadow.

Of his 99 games to date, the 52-year-old Town boss has won 33 matches, lost 35 and drawn 31.

And Peters revealed the initial blueprint laid out to chairman Roland Wycherley and the Town directors remains intact.

“I took a plan to the directors before I took the job of where I saw the club going – and it’s bang on schedule,” said Peters. “A very sketchy form of it was that the first year was all about survival and staying up.

“The next was about bringing in young players, getting them to gain some experience and consolidate our position.

“This season is about being able to compete with anyone in the division, being in the top half of the division all the time and having an outside chance of either automatic promotion or the play-offs.

“If we get up a year early then that’s great but if not we are on schedule to challenge next year and we are showing all the right signs and signals.

“It has to be a slow progress because sometimes you have to put really solid foundations in place to move forward and that’s what we have done.

“But if we are still in this division in another 100 games time then I will be very, very disappointed because that’s not in the plan.”

Peters, who watched Bury defeat Wrexham 1-0 at Gigg Lane last night, insisted he would have taken his side’s current 12th place in League Two at this stage of his reign when he took over on November 15, 2004, with Town in the bottom two.

But he added: “Now we are there, I’m disappointed because I think we are nine points short of what our performances deserve.”

Peters is still waiting to hear if on-loan Leyton Orient winger Joey Keith will be available for Saturday’s clash – but is certainly without skipper Richard Hope who continues to struggle with a thigh strain.

Two goals for Chris Morris and one each for Brad Morley and Dylan WIlliams helped Shrewsbury to a 4-0 FA Cup Youth Cup victory over Arnold Town at Gay Meadow last night. They now meet Macclesfield.

By James Garrison