Frustrated Peterborough Sports have the perfect ‘pick-me-up’ opportunity as they follow their FA Cup exit with a top-of-the-table clash

Peterborough Sports manager Jimmy Dean after the FA Cup tie at King's Lynn. Photo: James Richardson.

Sports boss Jimmy Dean believes his side were well worth a replay against National League side King’s Lynn in their fourth qualifying round tie at the walks. Lynn came from behind to win the game 2-1 and earn a first round proper home tie against League Two side Walsall.

One of Dean’s ambitions is to lead Sports into the first round for the first time in the club’s history, but, more importantly, he wants to take his team into the National League and they can take a big step towards that by winning a top of the table Southern League Premier Division Central clash at Coalville tomorrow.

Sports are top of the table, four points ahead of Coalville, and Dean is expecting a high-quality clash with plenty of goals.

Peterborough Sports celebrate their goal at King's Lynn. Photo: James Richardson.

“It’s the perfect fixture for us after Saturday,” Dean insisted. “We were all a bit down after coming so close at King’s Lynn, but we can’t go into a game between the top two in the division feeling sorry for ourselves can we?

“I won’t need to lift the lads up, it will happen naturally for a game that should be a cracker. They are very good going forward and so are we so there should be goals.

“Long-term this is a bigger game than King’s Lynn in the cup. It’s a six-pointer and if we can get a seven-point lead at the top we will have forgotten about the FA Cup.

“We were worth at least a replay at Lynn. They were better than us in the first-half, but we were better than them in the second-half.

“If we could just have reached half-time 1-0 up we would have been in great shape, but we conceded on half time and then gave them a soft goal in the second half.

“We had so many chances after we fell behind as well so it was frustrating.

“But the performance also shows how far we’ve progressed. The last time we played a full-time National League side we lost 6-1 at Fylde and it could have been 15-2! Now we’ve pushed a full-time side who have a top manager all the way and we should be proud of that.”

Centre-back Bras McGowan picked up a knock at Lynn and will miss tomorrow’s match. Midfielder Lewis Hilliard will play in the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division for March Town to speed up his return from injury.