Shrewsbury chief Gary Peters has warned of the dangers of the notorious Barnet slope as his side prepare for the first of a quartet of games in hand which could define their season tonight.

Town make the awkward trip to north London for a clash rearranged from January after Barnet’s run to the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Although Peters is taking a cautious approach to his side’s play-off ambitions, victory tonight would see Shrewsbury move within three points of the top seven with two games in hand.

But the Town boss is aware his side will have to be at their best to emerge from the unique challenge of the Underhill pitch with victory.

“It’s not just about playing against the other team, it’s about the difficulty of having the slope,” said Peters.

His side will equal the second longest unbeaten League sequence in their history by avoiding defeat tonight – matching the 12 achieved in the 1959-60 season.

“It really is a big slope and that’s something we will have to deal with. We will have to do things a bit differently to cope because it’s unique.

“People from the divisions above (Northampton and Colchester) have been beaten there in the FA Cup and so have teams at the top of our division.

“They have a good home record – but other sides have gone there and won so we have to try and do the same.

“This is the first game in hand we are getting to play and we need to take full advantage.

“We have got four games in hand spread between tonight and the second last week of the season.

“I’ll have a little look at the end and see how many points we have got from them. If we do well in them we can be challengers.

“But we need to ignore all the play-off stuff because we are not at that stage yet. We just have to try and win the games and see how many points we can get.”

Shrewsbury are almost certain to be without injured trio Ryan Esson, Lee Canoville and Michael Symes for the trip, but Sagi Burton may have recovered from his groin injury to take his place in the 16.

Peters will be forced into at least one change to his squad with Dave Edwards – a substitute for Friday’s 2-1 victory over Peterborough – away with the Welsh squad.

Tonight’s other League Two game could also have a bearing on Shrewsbury’s hopes with sixth-placed Stockport travelling to Bristol Rovers.