Management masterplan and outstanding players delivered a big win for Peterborough Sports against Blyth Spartans

Dean and his assistant, the former Peterborough United centre-back Chris Plummer, studied videos of Blyth Spartans before their National North League clash at the Bee Arena on Saturday.

It was preparation time well spent as Sports romped to a 4-0 win in front of close to 400 supporters thanks to goals from Dan Lawlor (penalty), Jordan Nicholson, Mark Jones and substitute Dan Jarvis.

"Now I’m back from holiday I had more time to prepare for the game,” Dean said. “I watched Blyth’s last game and to be fair they were very unlucky to lose to Scarborough and ‘Plums’ agreed with me.

"But we also vulnerabilities that we could expose and fair play to the players for carrying out the gameplan brilliantly. It was pleasing that we watched Blyth play very well and yet we came up with a plan that enabled us to win comfortably.

"We were very good. We scored early which helped, but we were dominant throughout.”

The win after back-to-back defeats over the Bank Holiday weekend to top sides Kidderminster Harriers and King’s Lynn Town and lifted Sports up four places to 10th with 10 points from 7 matches.

"If you’d offered me 10 points at this stage of the season before a ball had been kicked I’d have snatched your hand off,” Dean added.

“It was a great reponse by the players after a tough Bank Holiday weekend. We were outclassed by KIdderminster, but robbed by King’s Lynn, yet the players forgot about all of that and played really well again.

"We’ve all noticed this division is a big step up, but we will continue to embrace the challenge. It's remarkable what we’ve done because we only really signed three new players and we’ve had a tough start to the season. We’ve adapted incredibly well.”

Sports have released former Posh Under 23s skipper Kyle Barker and the midfielder has joined Spalding United in the Northern Premier Midlands Division.

Sports are back in league action at 11th-placed Brackley on Saturday (September 10) before hosting second-placed Banbury on Tuesday, September 13 (7.45pm).