Michael Appleton was pleased Shrewsbury’s relegation fate was not sealed after a 1-1 draw at his former club Lincoln.
Defeat would have seen the Shrews’ decade-long stint in the third tier ended but Aaron Pierre cancelled out ex-Shrew Tom Bayliss’ opener.
Appleton, whose side need a miracle string of results to stay up, said: “It’s great for everyone [that we’ve not been relegated].
“We’ve got a home game for people to enjoy and if we win and can score a few goals for people to enjoy then who knows? You can keep it going a bit longer.
“We just need to keep putting performances in.
“It was a good away display. We got a point and we move on.
“It would be a lie if I said it didn’t come into my mind. You look at the fixture list you know it could happen. But there was no talk about it.
“We didn’t start well. We weren’t aggressive. We didn’t get up to people quick enough in that first five or 10 minutes.
“We could have had a couple more goals with the opportunities we had.
“The reality is I’ve had to play a lot of the same players, if I’m brutally honest, to give us a fighting chance.
“I’m very happy. I can only ask them to show some belief and bravery.
“I think we’ve seen glimpses. We played through them and got opportunities. We will get better at it.”
The Imps sit in mid-table, unable to go up or down this term.
And boss Michael Skubala admitted: “There is frustration.
“We started brightly and went 1-0 up early on. But then we took our foot off the gas.
“I told the lads at half-time that we can’t do that. We concede a sloppy goal and that gives them something to hold on to.
“We lacked that intensity to try and open them up.
“It’s about the future for us so it’s good to see these players.
“It didn’t feel like we were chasing anything if I’m honest. I think we did enough to win the game, but it wasn’t where we want to be.
“That’s the challenge when you don’t have a lot to play for. You go 1-0 up and feel it’s going to be easier than it’s going to be. Then they equalise and it’s hard to get out of that mindset.
“I think we took our foot off the gas and it makes differences. If every player is one per cent off it, that’s 10 per cent.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we had enough quality to win the game if we had the right intensity.”
