Matt Taylor reveals Shrewsbury's Chey Dunkley apologised for red card

The skipper hauled down Thelo Aasgaard when he was through on goal and Daniel Middleton had no choice but to send him off.

The hosts went on to register a comfortable 2-0 victory at the DW Stadium after two former Shrews loanees – Stephen Humphrys and Callum Lang – scored to register their third win in succession.

But the red card was the deciding factor of the game with Town playing more than 90 minutes with 10 men and Taylor revealed the captain apologised after the game.

He said: "Sometimes you cannot control the decision-making of the players on the pitch.

"Yes he is upset and he is annoyed with himself, but as a man he has accepted and he has apologised and we must move on we must make sure that whoever goes out next week takes the opportunity with both hands.

"It is difficult and avoidable, he has got to own the fact that he has made that error today.

"He has got to accept it, I think he will do and he will have a different role to play now within the group because he cannot play.

"Somebody else will get an opportunity, it is another chance for someone else to keep the shirt.

"When you lose a player with the stature of Chey, it is avoidable as we should not be losing a player after four minutes.

"Especially not an experienced one, to make that decision to make the tackle, so I am really disappointed with that.

"But we move on and someone else gets a chance.

"We knew there would be a lot of suffering in that game and there was.

For large parts of that game, I thought we were excellent. We got into some excellent positions.

"When you play with 10 men you will give space away because you cannot cover the whole pitch."

There was hope before the game that Brandon Fleming, who went off injured in the win against Derby last weekend, would be passed fit to play at left wing-back.

But the Town boss revealed he failed a fitness on Friday and was unable to play – the boss hopes he could be in contention for next weekend's FA Cup clash.

As for Kieran Phillips, he has had 'exploratory surgery' on a knee issue.

He continued: "Brandon Fleming had a fitness test on Friday on did not come through it, we were hopeful that he would but he did not.

"Kieran had an exploratory operation and we are still waiting to find out the full extent of what that means for him and it means for us.

"The one good thing this week is we’ve had Jordan Shipley and Elliot Thorpe back in the training group.

“I’m hopeful both of those will be available in some capacity next weekend.

“So while I don’t think Brandon will be absent for a long period of time, Kieran might be a bit longer but as I say, I can’t give you the specifics on that because I don’t know it.

“What I will say if the group will get a lift from Elliot Thorpe and Jordan Shipley being back involved – whether or not Brandon Fleming is available or fit to play – we’ll find our early next week.”