Peters fury at 'amateur' Town

Furious Shrewsbury Town manager Gary Peters will this week deliver "harsh but constructive" criticism to his players after labelling Saturday's Accrington throwaway as "amateurish."

Town looked set to return from Lancashire with the victory which would have pushed them into ninth place in League Two after an 84th minute strike from Michael Symes put them ahead for a third time at 3-2.

But a late lapse in concentration proved costly for Town who allowed Robbie Williams the chance to level for the hosts - and leave their manager fuming.

"To be in the lead three times and to score six minutes from time and not finish the job off is very frustrating," Peters bemoaned.

"You have to be able to forgive a lack of quality at times but I won't forgive a lack of professionalism.

"That was amateurish and I'm going to go through specific incidents with specific people within the privacy of the training ground and they have to be mentally tough enough to deal with it.

"It will be harsh criticism but also constructive. Giving away two points like that can cost individuals thousands of pounds.

"I would have put any money you like on us closing the game out but we let two points slip.

"Conceding poor goals is not something that happens to us on a regular basis and that's why I will jump on it from a great height.

"I thought we defended too deep all the way through and that invited pressure. I will put that right and we will be doing a lot of work on defending at the training ground this week."

Peters, however, believes his side are still well-placed to make a strike on the play-offs in the remainder of the season.

"We were a couple of minutes off going into ninth place and three points behind the play-offs and we threw that away," he added.

"But we are still in touch. We are five points away and we will have played two more away games than we have done at home by the end of this week.

"We are not delighted with where we are because too many points have gone adrift.

"But we still feel we can do well and Saturday was a wake-up call."

By JAMES GARRISON