Crook prevents an obvious miscarriage of justice as Peterborough Sports claim a point from Boston United visit

Goalkeeper Peter Crook’s 88th-minute penalty save against his old club preserved a point for Sports from a 1-1 draw in front of a bumper crowd of 723.

Dion Sembie-Ferris had earlier claimed an equaliser from a Crook assist. It was the first Sports’ goal for six competitive matches.

Crook has quickly earned a reputation as a penalty-saving expert at Sports.

"That’s four or five Peter has saved,” Dean stated. “He saved a couple in the play-offs last season and he showed big character throughout yesterday’s game. We’ve conceded a couple of iffy goals lately, but he stood up tall against his old club.

"It would have been a travesty if we’d been beaten. The penalty award was wrong anyway as the offence took place outside the area, but that actually worked in our favour as Peter could have been sent off if a free kick rather than a penalty had been awarded. That sort of thing has been going against us recently so it was good to get something go our way,

"When you’re a goal down at half-time and then concede a penalty two minutes from time then you should be happy with a point, but we probably deserved more.

"We were the dominant side for 25 minutes and then conceded from a set-piece when the referee missed a block on one of our defenders. We did lose our heads for 10 minutes or so and the players started arguing amongst themselves, but once we settled down and stuck together as a team we played well.

"We needed that goal and we looked the more likely to score a second goal before the penalty.

"Boston played the conditions. They didn’t look to play on the deck. They just went long to two very quck forwards, but we coped with it well."

Sports are 15th and four points clear of the drop zone ahead of Monday’s league match at Bradford Park Avenue. Bradford are third from bottom, but have a strong home record.

"They play on a 3G pitch and only (leaders) Brackley have won there,” Dean added. “They’ve beaten good sides live Hereford and Gloucester there so it will be tough for us to go an play on that surface on a Monday night after a two-and-a-half hour drive.”