MANAGER James Beattie has urged his Stanley players to pick themselves up in time for Tuesday night's League 2 match at Shrewsbury.

Kal Naismith's last-gasp penalty miss meant the Reds lost 2-1 at Cheltenham on Saturday, leaving them with two defeats from their opening two league games.

Some are now fearing a repeat of last season, when Beattie's men took 13 games to register their first league win.

But the Reds recovered from that nightmare start to finish well clear of the relegation zone and Beattie has called for a similar spirit as they visit the Shrews, who have taken four points from six.

“There's only one thing we need to concentrate on and that's keeping this club in the league,” he told Stanley’s official website.

“With the budget we're on I think it was an absolute miracle the lads produced the performances they did last season. If we can produce it again and stay in the league it'll be another miracle.

“We know what happened at the end (the penalty miss) and the lads are dejected,” Beattie added.

“But I’ve told them they need to process that disappointment, throw it in the bin and move forward because there’s a great opportunity to put it right against Shrewsbury.

“I told them to have their chests out because that's what we do, we're Accrington Stanley. I've told them that none of my teams should ever drop their head.”

Naismith had drawn Stanley level at 1-1 before missing the late spot-kick and, having been a regular penalty taker during his own career, Beattie refused to make the young Scottish winger a scapegoat.

“Penalty taking is a pressure situation and usually Kal is excellent at them," said the Reds' boss. “I had every faith that he was going to score but he’s lifted it over the bar.

“We didn’t really start the game in any capacity and we were lucky at half-time to be still in the game,” Beattie added.

“Luke Simpson was excellent in goal for us, so I told the lads it was an opportunity in the second half to start the game again.

“We made a double substitution, changed formation to 4-4-2 and got back into the game with a great move. There was great awareness in the box by George Bowerman and James Gray to lay it off for Kal.

“At that stage I thought we had the momentum. We rode our luck a bit but when we did score I thought only one team would go on to win it.

“But there was a long ball, and it hurts me to say it, but we didn’t deal with it properly and it ended up in our net.

“At that point a few of the lads’ heads dropped, which I’ve said I’m not happy about because you’ve got to keep going till the final whistle.

“The lads that didn’t let their heads drop got us out of the mess we were in again and gave us an opportunity to salvage something from the game.”