Shrewsbury Town keeper Chris Neal in promotion vow

Shrewsbury Town goalkeeper Chris Neal today pledged not to allow his Swindon blunder to disrupt "the best football of my career."

Neal was at fault for Swindon's opening goal in Tuesday's 2-1 defeat at the County Ground, spilling a Matt Ritchie shot which gifted Alan Connell a simple tap-in to allow the hosts to level the scores.

The 26-year-old is expected to retain his place for Monday's visit of Crawley and has vowed not to allow his confidence to be affected.

"I set my standards quite high and I think it's been going pretty well with the amount of clean sheets and wins we have had," said Neal.

"To make a mistake like I did at Swindon is disappointing.

"It let Swindon back into the game which made it even worse for me, but I'm not going to think about it too much.

"I have to be strong personally. I've made mistakes in the past and not come back as positive as I should.

"But I'm feeling good and this is probably the best football I've played in my career.

"With this run in the team, I'm feeling more and more confident.

"With football you will get little knock-backs and it's how you react.

"One game won't make our season and we have got 15 games left to consolidate our place in the automatic promotion places."

Neal, who has reeled off 23 consecutive starts since replacing Ben Smith at the start of October, insists Town remain well placed to secure a top-three finish after beginning the weekend just two points adrift of the automatic promotion berths.

"In the last couple of seasons when we have ended up in the play-offs, we have had a couple of blips during the season and notably around Christmas time," he added.

"That hasn't happened this year. After Christmas we picked up 15 points out of 18.

"The manager's said in the changing room that it's strongest squad he has had here and we are not looking for play-offs.

"We want automatic and to get the season done by the end of May."