Peterborough Sports boss believes his side can play football to match any National League North side- if the pitch is right

Sports have showed their impressive footballing ability in recent away wins at Bradford Park Avenue and Hereford, in patches as well in spells at Brackley and Fylde, but Dean wants his side to be able to play that way at home- something their pitch does not currently allow them to do.

He has stressed that the current grounds team are doing good work but it is taking time to make up for how it was managed previously and the fact the new team were not in place during the crucial months of May and June.

He said: “The pitch just makes it really difficult for us to have a game of football.

“It turns up quickly, you can’t play three of four passes on it and it’s difficult. We’ve got to try and get it flatter rather than aesthetically good.

"You’ve got teams coming and they’re not trying to play. That’s not because they’re not footballing teams but when they come to us they’re not interested and they try to spoil and it makes it so much harder. It makes it so much harder to have a proper game.

"Wing back and full back play, that’s where a lot of our good stuff comes form but it you can’t do it and get the ball down- we ended up going route one like everyone else who comes here.

"In home games, we have to think about what we do as teams are adapting to our ground and we’re not. It’s taking away advantage. They’re adapting to the conditions but we are still trying to play.

"We actually play some good stuff when we get the ball down and we play whenever the opportunity presents itself. I honestly believe that when we get the ball down and play, we can match any team at this level.

"The pitch at Hereford let us play football. There’s no coincidence that, bar the first half at Brackley, the last four away have been Fylde, Brackley, Bradford and Hereford; all flat surfaces where we can pass the ball, and bar one half, where we were poor, we’ve been excellent. We’ve played some great football.

"When you watch us away, which not many get the opportunity to do, you can see that we can play football. It’s frustrating.

"It’s not the current groundsman’s fault, they’ve done a great job of getting it going but the pitch hasn’t been done right before them in the summer and now it’s catching up.”

Sports host National League South strugglers Cheshunt on the pitch on Saturday in the FA Trophy second round.

They have taken 12 points from their 18 league matches and sit second bottom, five points adrift of safety.

They have former Sports full-back Luke Warner-Eley in their ranks.