Peters is happy to play games

Shrewsbury Town have turned to a sports psychologist to aid their push for promotion.

Manager Gary Peters has brought in Mark Layder to engage in the battle of the mind with his players.

Layder - who has worked with current Bristol City manager Gary Johnson - has already held a handful of meetings with the entire squad, and has also staged one-on-one talks with individuals.

And Peters is confident the new initiative will give his squad an extra edge over their rivals throughout the gruelling campaign.

"We feel that we have to keep improving as a club and this is another side to that," said the Town boss.

"We feel as though we have improved the squad over the summer, that the technology we use has improved and the training has improved.

"Performance and what you do in life is not always about what you do - a lot of it is to do with how you feel.

"If having a psychologist gets one per cent extra out of each member of the squad, that's a 20 per cent improvement.

"Even if we get one per cent extra out of one player, it's worth having. Everywhere Mark has worked he has had success.

"He has worked with Latvia when they got to the European Championships, which is like Gillingham getting to the Premiership, and he has worked with Bristol City and Yeovil as they have gone up the leagues."

Peters insists there has not been one moment of scepticism amongst his squad at the introduction of a psychologist.

"There hasn't been any of that at all," he added.

"If I had tried to do this two-and-a-half years ago when I first came to the club, it would have fallen flat on its face because the players wouldn't have understood the importance of it.

"They didn't even understand the importance of training in the same county.

"The lads have taken it on board well and there must have been 10 of them already rung Mark up for individual chats."

By James Garrison