Shrewsbury boss Gareth Ainsworth said he was “proud” to give his team Monday off as a reward for their fightback with 10 men to beat Mansfield 2-1.
The hosts secured back-to-back home wins to move off the bottom of the table thanks to George Lloyd’s winner.
Will Evans opened the scoring for the visitors early on after converting from close range and Shrewsbury suffered another setback on the half-hour mark as Toto Nsiala saw red for bringing down Lee Gregory on the edge of the box.
However, they turned it around in the second half, with John Marquis equalising in the 54th minute and Lloyd converting the winner after an hour.
“To go 1-0 down was a real killer and then to go down to 10 men was an absolute killer,” said Ainsworth. “Toto stuck his hands up for that.
“The big thing was to not to focus on that and not to tell them what they were doing wrong, but what they could do right.
“I said to them, ‘Has anyone ever played in a team at half-time with 10 men that is losing and has gone on to win?’ And every single one of them said they had done that. So I said, ‘Look we do this now,’ and every single one of them believed.
“Lloyd has worked his absolute socks off, he was the outlet down the sides, and what we planned with 11 men we really nailed with 10 men.
“I have had to give them Monday off and I am proud to do that because it doesn’t happen very often, but they have given everything.”
Mansfield boss Nigel Clough branded the result “absolutely disastrous and devastating” as they suffered a fifth straight loss.
He said: “We gave away some incredibly poor goals first and foremost and we didn’t play with enough intent.
“I have been to Shrewsbury a few times recently and I have seen them beat Birmingham on TV and seen the spirit they have got when they get a goal back.
“The message went on when they went down to 10 men to do everything you can to go and get a second goal before half-time, that was the message to the players.
“When you get into the position that we are in, it was an incredibly good opportunity to break that losing run even with a draw, but you don’t lose the game in the circumstances.”
