Not by a long stretch are they ready to hoist aloft the white flag and surrender their automatic promotion target.

But Shrewsbury Town will have spent the weekend wondering just how costly the raising of two other flags will prove to be in the final reckoning.

Within the space of four second half minutes, Town had a potentially decisive second goal disallowed for offside by one assistant referee, and then saw the other award Wycombe a highly contentious and blatantly incorrect leveller to ensure this critical promotion battle ended in deadlock.

A crying shame it was too that this more than respectable advert for League Two football should end with the performance of referee James Linnington and his assistants under the microscope.

The decision to rule out a second James Collins goal within a minute of the re-start for offside was a borderline call, one which could have swung either way.

Had it been allowed to stand, Shrewsbury would have been strong favourites to convert a 2-0 advantage into only a third home victory in 10 Greenhous Meadow outings.

But it was the decision to allow Gareth Ainsworth’s long range header to stand which truly stuck in the Town craw.

The gut reaction was that goalkeeper Ben Smith had scooped the ball to safety with something to spare, pulling off a fine save in the process.

That it was latterly confirmed by video replays made it all the more galling for the hosts.

While those two calls were made by his assistants, man-in-the-middle Linnington hardly covered himself in glory.

His decision making had become more baffling as the afternoon progressed but it was during the closing minutes that he truly ran the gauntlet of the Town fans.

He somehow refused to award a foul by Wycombe’s last man Dave Winfield when Collins was bundled to the ground just outside the box when a red-card would have been an inevitable by-product.

And Winfield enjoyed another lucky escape in the dying seconds when Linnington blew the final whistle while his assistant was flagging for a penalty as Matt Harrold was held back.

The scathing response from Graham Turner to the performance of the officials was inevitable.

The Town boss knew just how vital victory in this fourth-versus-third encounter was to his side’s automatic promotion prospects.

Trailing by four points with nine games remaining, they are still not out of the reckoning.

But they are now likely to require at least six victories from the last nine games if they are to take the direct route to League One and avoid the detour of the play-offs.

If this was an afternoon when the display of the officials got progressively worse, Town’s performance graph went in the opposite direction.

While Smith wasn’t stretched in the opening third of this encounter, such was Wycombe’s domination over a dis-jointed and tentative Town that the hosts were fortunate to reach the 30 minute mark level.

But the complexion of the afternoon was to change when Collins capitalised on a sliced clearance from Matt Bloomfield as he attempted to deal with a Mark Wright cross to slot home from close range and give his side a 31st minute lead.

Confidence restored after last week’s 5-0 mauling at Torquay, Town were the superior force and the more likely winners for the game’s final hour.

With the scores at 1-1, David Davis will have been disappointed not to have directed a free header wide from a Wright free-kick on, rather than wide of, the target.

And the chance to become a hero passed both Nicky Wroe and Jon Taylor by as they spurned golden opportunities in a rapid counter-attack four minutes from time.

It meant Shrewsbury were forced to settle for a share of the spoils and the continuation of a woeful record against Wycombe, who they have now beaten just once in 20 League attempts.

More importantly, it made for a weekend of contemplating just how important the goal that wasn’t will prove to be.

Match analysis by JAMES GARRISON