Furious Shrewsbury Town today admitted they must put the Greenhous Meadow ‘robbery’ behind them after being denied two precious promotion points by ‘the goal that never was’.

The Shropshire Star’s pictures prove that Gareth Ainsworth’s 50th minute headed equaliser for Wycombe on Saturday was clawed back by Town goalkeeper Ben Smith well BEFORE the ball had crossed the line.

That was the most high profile of a string of controversial decisions made by Isle of Wight referee James Linington and his assistants Darren England and Richard Wigglesworth as one of Town’s most important contests of the season ended in a 1-1 deadlock.

It left Graham Turner livid in the immediate aftermath and the Town boss is likely to make his views known in the referee’s report filed by managers after each game.

But Turner admits his side must now look forward to trying to bridge the four point gap which continues to separate them from Wycombe in the final automatic promotion spot.

“All the footage shows that it was not a goal and I can understand why Premier League managers get so frustrated,” the Town boss said today after the type of goal which raises the question of video technology.

“But we have to put it behind us and move on.”

Turner pulled no punches in his assessment of the officials after the game.

“We were robbed by a linesman’s decision,” said the Town boss.

“He couldn’t have possibly seen it and it wasn’t on the line let alone over it.

“We are respectful to referees and we don’t say a lot but I thought the performance of the officials was disgraceful.”

Meanwhile, teenage winger Jon Taylor has been named the Football League’s young player of the month for February, the first League Two player to win the award this month.

The 18-year-old scored four times in five games, including twice on his full debut against Burton.

By JAMES GARRISON