Peters takes burden of defeat
Manager Gary Peters today insisted he retained faith in his Shrewsbury Town players - and accepted full responsibility for the club's performance.Manager Gary Peters today insisted he retained faith in his Shrewsbury Town players - and accepted full responsibility for the club's performance. Town's season of under-achievement suffered a fresh setback yesterday when they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at League Two leaders Walsall - despite Richard Money's side playing the final 62 minutes with 10 men. That has left Shrewsbury in a lowly 16th place with the pre-season dream of promotion further away than ever. But Peters insists his squad contains enough quality to climb the table. Read the full story in the Shropshire Star
Town's season of under-achievement suffered a fresh setback yesterday when they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at League Two leaders Walsall - despite Richard Money's side playing the final 62 minutes with 10 men.
That has left Shrewsbury in a lowly 16th place with the pre-season dream of promotion further away than ever.
But Peters insists his squad contains enough quality to climb the table.
"The results are not going as well as the performances and we have to put that right," said Peters. "I felt at the start of the season we had players capable of getting to the play-offs.
"The fact we have dropped so many points we shouldn't have has made that harder because we are now playing catch-up.
"But I'm convinced this group of players can be more successful than we are at the moment.
"I pick and the select the players. I get great backing from the chairman and directors on technological advances, a super training ground and overnight stays when we need them.
"Responsibility finishes with me whatever happens and I have got faith with the players."
Yesterday's defeat means Town have failed to collect a single point from the first half of the four-game Christmas programme, despite meticulous planning which saw Shrewsbury's players training on Christmas night and having three overnight stays over the festive period.
But Peters added: "The fact we have done the preparation does not make it more frustrating at all.
"Preparation is about sending out the players in the best possible shape and both ourselves and Walsall did that because they prepared properly by training on Christmas Day as well.
"The preparation makes me feel 10 times better today than if we had not done it."
Town's squad were kept in the away changing rooms at Bescot Stadium for almost an hour after yesterday's defeat but for what Peters described as constructive talks.
"It was not a shouting or slanging match or anything like that and it wasn't a lock in," he added.
"We had a meeting about why we had so much of the ball and couldn't break them down and we wanted the players to have their say.
"It was a helpful talk which will continue but we came out of the changing rooms feeling we had got more out of it than we had after 90 minutes."
By James Garrison
