New signing for Peterborough Sports ahead of tough National League North home game
Peterborough Sports have to shrug off mounting levels of misfortune to clamber away from the relegation zone in National League North.
The city side have a tough game against third-placed AFC Fylde at PIMS Park on Saturday after defeat at AFC Telford on Tuesday night left them next-to-bottom of the table, three points from a position of safety.
Sports started the game in Shropshire without key players Shaq Coulthirst and Dan Jarvis and finished it without Sam Bayly and Ben Mensah who picked up knocks during a 3-2 defeat, Mensah last just 20 minutes as a second-half substitute before picking up a hamstring issue.
Their fitness will be assessed at training on Thursday evening, but they could well be absent on Saturday. On-loan Barnsley man Bayley McCann will also be missing again after his call-up to the Northern Ireland Under 21 squad.
Sports have bolstered the squad though with the on-loan signing of young Cambridge United defender Harry Dawson.
"If there’s any bad luck going around we seemed to find it,” Sports’ joint-boss Michael Gash said. “The injuries to key players have really killed us and now we have picked up 2 more.
"But it’s part and parcel of football and we will roll our sleeves up, put out a competitive side on Saturday and just get on with things. Obviously it’s another tough game as they have started well after coming down from the National League, but we will compete and try and get 3 points on the board.
"It was disappointing at Telford as, although we scored first, we didn’t get to grips early enough with the way they played. They scored at good times, firstly just before half-time and than after we’d started the second pretty well. We kept fighting though and pulled a goal back with a penalty, but we just couldn’t find an equaliser.
"They lost their goalkeeper early on and had to put an outfield player back there, but we didn’t do enough to test him. We did score with two good finishes, but Telford are a very good side who will cause problems on good pitches against most teams. They like to get the ball out to two very effective wingers and we didn’t do enough to stop it happening.”
Coulthirst and Jarvis could miss the next month. McCann should be back in the Sports fold for the FA Cup tie against Hornchurch at PIMS Park on September 13.