Calamitous start costs Peterborough Sports in local derby against top dogs King's Lynn

Peterborough Sports boss Jimmy Dean called this match a free hit for his side but after just four minutes must have been left fearing a cricket score.

Starts to matches don’t come much worse than the one Sports made, which saw them gift Lynn two tap-ins in the opening five minutes.

If this season has taught us one thing about Dean’s squad though it’s that they are adept at dealing with adversity and just getting on with in on the pitch. After hanging in there for a tough 15 minutes against rampaging hosts, they managed to pull a goal back.

This time King’s Lynn returned the favour of their generous visitors when ex-Posh full-back Tyler Denton diverted Nathan Fox’s cross into his own net.

From then on, Sports proved to be rather stubborn opponents, limiting their hosts’ sights at goal, despite them seeing overwhelmingly more of the ball.

Those opening five minutes just gave Sports too much of a mountain to climb as, although they excellently shut out their opponents, they were unable to cause them enough problems going the other way.

The result sees Sports drop a place to 11th courtesy of victory for Tuesday’s opponents Gloucester City, while their hosts moved back to the top of the division. One positive for Sports was the impressive away backing that may well have been approaching 100 fans.

Whatever the game plan Dean had come up with was, it was sent flying out of the window after just four minutes.

With not even two minutes on the clock, Pete Crook and Nathan Fox were involved in a mix-up that saw the defender head a long ball out of his keeper’s path and across goal for Aaron Jones to complete a simple tap-in.

With Sports still processing the shock, Lynn came again and Josh Barrett saw a shot from just inside the box parried by Crook right into the path of AFC Wimbledon loanee and debutant Aaron Cosgrave for another tap-in

Sports did everything they could to hang in there for 15 minutes before Fox became the most relieved man on the pitch to see his cross, from the left-hand side, diverted into his own net by Denton.

After Crook pushed over Josh Barrett’s powerful 25-yard shot midway through the half, Sports actually ended the half the better but, as was their problem throughout the game, they struggled to create opportunities.

The second half saw the hosts reassert their domination but they ended it unable to point to a single problem they caused Crook.

Sports just had to craft a chance of their own but came up short against one of the league’s toughest defences.

The closest they came was when Paul Jones jumped well to deny Michael Gash a fairytale equaliser against his former side with ten minutes to play.

Sports: Pete Crook, Kayden Williams Lowe (sub Maniche Sani 76mins), Ryan Fryatt, Connor Johnson, Nathan Fox, Dan Lawlor, Connor Kennedy, Diadier Camara (sub Dan Jarvis 56 mins), Josh McCammon, Dion Sembie-Ferris, Mark Jones (sub Michael Gash 76 mins).

Not Used: Richard Jones, Jordan Nicholson.

King’s Lynn: Paul Jones, Aaron Jones, Adam Crowther, Tyler Denton, Olly Scott, Ben Stephens (sub Tom Hughes 72 mins), Theo Widdrington, Michael Clunan, Josh Barrett (sub Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain), Aaron Cosgrave (sub Jordan Ponticelli 60 mins)

Not used: Kyle Callan-McFadden, Sam Blair.

Goals:

King’s Lynn- A. Jones (2 mins), Cosgrove (4 mins).

Sports- Denton (og) (19 mins).

Cautions:

Sports: Camara (foul), Fryatt (foul).

Ref: Darius Bradley 6.

Attendance: 1343.