Shrewsbury Town today vowed not to “count their play-off chickens” as manager Gary Peters warned one slip on the nerve-jangling run-in could prove costly.

Yesterday’s dour goalless draw at Chester kept Shrewsbury in the top seven and the chasing pack at bay.

With Town, on paper at least, facing a favourable run-in, confidence amongst supporters remains high.

But Peters is aware one defeat could allow the pursuers – of which Bristol Rovers now appear the principal danger – into pole position. “We are in a very good situation with three home games and one away,” said the Town chief.

“But we are certainly not counting our chickens. We know if we win our four games we will be in the play-offs so that has to be the mindset.

“If we had won yesterday it would have given us a bit of breathing space and would have put fifth, sixth and seventh positions in our hands.

“We still have control over sixth and seventh and that’s how we need to keep it.

“If we lose one and some of the chasers win then it could be out of our hands and that’s not a good position.”

Meanwhile, Peters has revealed a cluster of reasons – including threats from Chester supporters – played a part in the shock omission of Ben Davies from the 16 for the trip to his former club.

“Ben is more of a target for Chester fans than Stewart Drummond, Chris Mackenzie, Richard Hope and Derek Asamoah (who all used to play for City),” added the Town boss.

“Ben said he would only leave Chester if he was going to sign for a higher division club but when he spoke to teams, he felt for football reasons he would be better off with us.

“He turned down a lot more money from another club to sign for us and I think everybody – including the Chester fans – would admire that.

“But they have got the hump with him and in the first game at Gay Meadow he had bottles thrown at him when he was taking corners.

“There were a few threats again this time but we weren’t too worried about them. If Ben had played, every time he touched the ball or got involved in something he would have been booed.

“I didn’t want to give their players and supporters any inspiration and I think it worked because it didn’t sound as though there were any Chester supporters there.”

Picture: Kelvin Langmead forces the ball home – only for the ‘goal’ to be ruled out for a foul by Hope.

By James Garrison