If all goes to plan this season, Shrewsbury Town will accumulate enough points to claim one of the automatic promotion slots they regained on Saturday.

But whatever the outcome, Graham Turner’s side will collect few harder earned points than the one they banked at Stevenage.

An afternoon which started with Shrewsbury unable to get any kind of grip on proceedings ended with the visitors heading back to Shropshire with a precious share of the spoils after what was, at times, a frantic battle.

Coupled with surprising results elsewhere – victories for Burton and Stockport at Chesterfield and Bury – Town made up ground on their promotion rivals as they ended a demanding schedule of eight away matches out of the last 11 games in a coveted top three spot.

It means they will return to the Greenhous Meadow for the first time in three weeks next Saturday with the foundations laid for a pre-Christmas push for the League Two summit.

And if Shrewsbury display the type of grit, tenacity and resilience that they did on Saturday, they will go a long way towards achieving their promotion target.

When the chips were down, Town dug deep into their reserves to rescue a point from a game which could easily have slipped away from their grasp during an opening 30 minutes in which Shrewsbury found themselves virtually permanently on the back foot.

Stevenage’s only major chance of note in that spell produced the seventh minute deadlock-breaker, Chris Holroyd tapping home from close range after Chris Neal failed to hold a drilled Michael Bostwick free-kick.

But the hosts’ dominance in that early period was total as their high intensity, high tempo approach left Town requiring some impressive defending to keep themselves in touch.

It took two alterations from Town manager Graham Turner to turn the tide and change the emphasis.

A switch from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 after just 25 minutes — Tope Obedayi joining Jake Robinson in attack with Mark Wright switching to the right flank and Kevin McIntyre shifting out wide — allowed Town to stem the Stevenage flow before half-time.

And the arrival of substitutes Matt Harrold and Benjamin van den Broek for Obedayi and Robinson at half time provided the visitors with a greater physical presence in forward areas, an increased threat in the final third and a foothold in the game.

All over the pitch in the second half, there was — at times — a composure about Town’s play which had been lacking in the opening period and their reward came with a 55th minute equaliser.

Rasor-sharp thinking at a halfway line free-kick from Sean McAliister sent McIntyre galloping clear down the left before his incisive low cross was slotted home by Harrold.

From there, a share of the spoils always appeared the most likely outcome between two fairly evenly-matched sides.

But Town had their chances to sneak all three points in an increasingly watchable second half.

The visitors’ best chance fell to Wright who fired just wide with a 20 yard effort, while Stevenage, their early threat blunted, failed to truly test Neal after the break.

And so, particularly after such an unconvincing opening, a point represented a fine afternoon’s work for Turner’s side.

It will look better still if it is followed up by two home victories over Southend and Hereford in the next 10 days to cement Shrewsbury’s place in the automatic promotion slots.

Match analysis by JAMES GARRISON