Shrews disappointed with set-piece frailties and the lack of a late penalty award

All three goals in a 2-1 win for Posh came from free-kicks played into the penalty area. Jonson Clarke-Harris and Frankie Kent scored for Posh from Joe Ward crosses with the winning goal arriving just three minutes from time.

The win moved Posh above Shrewsbury into eighth place, two places and seven points behind Derby County, who occupy the final play-off place.

Posh have a game in hand on the Rams and play them at the Weston Homes Stadium on March 25.

Cotterill also revealed his players were disappointed not to win a late penalty when Posh goalkeeper Will Norris clashed with Shrewsbury centre-back Chey Dunkley.

“I thought in the second half we created enough chances to win the game," Cotterill told the Shropshire Star.

"When we got it back to 1-1 Tom Bayliss had a good chance, Matthew Pennington had a good chance, and the boys seem to think it was a penalty on Chey Dunkley at the end.

"If we had got that second goal, we would have gone on to win the game.

"We spoke about their delivery into the box on our set plays. We were disappointed they have scored two goals against us from free kicks as that does not normally happen.

"So we are disappointed with that the result obviously, but other than that I thought the performance for an away performance was decent against a good side.”

Posh will meet Shrewsbury again in a League One match at the Montgomery Waters Stadium on Good Friday (April 7).