ShrewsburyTown boss blasts the referee after his side were outclassed by Peterborough United

Posh virtually dominated the entire 90 minutes of their League One clash, but it did take a controversial penalty award from Boyeson, after Ephron Mason-Clark and home defender Matthew Pennington came together in the area, to get their noses in front on the half-hour mark.

Jonson Clarke-Harris duly bagged his 25th goal of the season from the penalty spot and second-half strikes from Mason-Clark and Jack Taylor completed a 3-0 win which kept Posh in a play-off place.

Cotterill, whose side were hammered 6-0 at Charlton last weekend, told the Shropshire Star: ”The refereeing performance was awful. He had a big impact on the game today with the penalty decision.

"It was never a penalty. I did not think it was a penalty at the time, and I have just looked back at it twice in slow motion - it is never a penalty.

"The first goal today was going to be really important for us, especially on the back of last week, as we would have wanted to get our noses in front.

"They started the brighter team, but they only had that effort against the post.

"The referees come with a pre-conceived idea of who they think will win games. They will deny it and say they won't - rubbish.

"We have had no rub of the green off any referee all season.

"It has been a joke, even the fourth official today, he could not stand any further back because he did not want to speak today about the referee.

"And that is really really hard, when you are swimming against the tide anyway it is really really hard, the job is at the moment so we have got to tough it out."

It’s not going to get any easier for 10th-placed Shrewsbury as they travel to fourth-placed Barnsley on Easter Monday.