Shrewsbury manager Gary Peters has slammed the “stupidity” of striker Michael Symes after the first sending-off of his professional career.

The 23-year-old was dismissed in the 40th minute of Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Mansfield after a tangle with Stags defender Alex John Baptiste.

Town officials this morning received confirmation that Symes will miss three games, starting immediately with next Saturday’s visit of Bury.

And Peters has admitted the former Everton trainee and Bradford forward will be made to pay for his indiscretion on Saturday.

“There was not a lot in it but you are not allowed to put your hands on anyone,” admitted Peters.

“The ref had let the game go on, seen we had got no advantage and ended up giving us a foul and booking their lad.

“But from all of that we ended up getting a player sent-off which is stupidity and I can’t tolerate that.

“It was a little bit of handbags and kids stuff and accepting that is not in my make-up.

“It’s out-of-character and we have to make sure it stays that way because three games of losing Michael Symes is a big blow to him and us.

“Obviously he will be hit in the pocket – that goes without saying.

“But we will also take a positive out of it and we have three weeks to work on making Symesey a better player.

“We haven’t done too much extra work with him because we didn’t want to overload him with the injury problems he’s had in the past.

“But now we can work morning and afternoon with him and make sure we have a better striker available to us when he comes back.”

Town’s draw leaves them 12 points behind the final play-off place, and with Peters admitting there is plenty of work to do to keep that dream alive.

“It seems a long way off at the moment and the lack of games through January has killed us from that point of view,” he added.

“But Stockport have shown you can fly up the table with a few wins on the trot and that has to be what we look to do.”

Club captain Richard Hope could be set for a return to action in tonight’s reserve team visit of Leeds United following the death of his mother.

Also set for a run out are Ryan Esson, Ben Herd and Leo-Fortune-West.

By James Garrison