An 'ugly' win pleases Peterborough Sports joint-manager as city side clamber off the bottom of the table
Peterborough Sport joint-manager Michael Gash was delighted to see his side ‘win ugly’ in their National League North fixture at Marine FC on Saturday.
Sports claimed their first win of the season 1-0 courtesy of Bayley McCann’s superb free-kick. The city side are now next-to-bottom ahead of a trip to AFC Telford on Tuesday (September 2).
But on loan Barnsley teenager McCann will now miss the next two Sports games, at Telford on Tuesday and at home to Fylde on Saturday (September 6) because he has won his first call-up to the Northern Ireland Under 21 squad. Attempts to get Northern Ireland to release him for the Telford trip have failed.
"We deserved to win because of a fast start when we had a few chances and because of the quality of Bayley’s free kick,” Gash said. “We certainly played well in the first-half, but when we reached half-time at 0-0 you do start to wonder.
"But we scored our goal and then delivered a very solid defensive display when they came at us at the end. I looked across the line at one point and I could see 6 attackers up against and fair play to them as they kept getting the ball out wide to deliver some excellent crosses.
"But centre-backs Ashton Fox and Ryan Fryatt were outstanding. They, and goalkeeper Peter Crook, dealt with everything superbly. ‘Crooky’ made one good save late on with his foot, but otherwise we cleared everything.
"It was an ugly win in the end, but I said to the lads afterwards 80% of wins at this level are ugly. It’s something you have to be good at and we were in this game.
"We were trying to keep Bayley for the Telford game as he will only be an hour away at Loughborough and Northern Ireland don’t play until the following Tuesday, but it was up to them. It’s a blow, but one we will deal with.”
Former Peterborough United youngster Aaron Powell is McCann’s most likely replacement as a left wing-back. Sports are also expected to start new loan signing Theo Williams for a second time. He was excellent on his debut at Marine following a loan move from National League North rivals King’s Lynn Town.
“Theo was just what we needed,” Gash added. “He offers us pace in behind and sharpness around the penalty area. It’s another tough game at Telford who also had a very good win on Saturday, but winning is always a boost so we will travel with confidence.”