Peterborough Sports boss calls for more resilience after late heartbreak against Buxton
Peterborough Sports boss Phil Brown has insisted that his side needs to find more resilience to cope with the number of quickfire matches his side will face in the National League North.
Brown was talking in the wake of his side’s 2-1 defeat to Buxton at PIMS Park on Tuesday night. Ben Breresford had opened the scoring on his first start for that club within the opening 60 seconds but Sports were pegged back after ten minutes and dealt a cruel blow in the 95th minute when Connor Kirby rifle a free-kick into the top corner.
The result saw Sports slip to the foot of the table once again as Southport picked up a point against Chorley.
Sports were dealt another injury blow when midfielder Charlie Hickingbotham limped off with a hamstring injury. Brown also looked back on his decision to replace captain Dan Jarvis with Jez Davies with 15 minutes to play as one of the turning points of the match.
There were positives for Sports, who saw Shaquille Coulthirst appear for the first time this season after signing in the summer but picking up an injury in pre-season. Sports could also make another signing before travelling to Curzon Ashton on Saturday.
Brown said: “We are in the position we are in and what we have to do is have 11 players and subs that will cross the line and represent us to the best of their ability. Tonight, the majority of us did that and because of that, we deserved something from the game. We haven’t got anything out of a game we put a lot of effort into.
“The second half was a grind, it was all about winning second balls and who had the spirit and desire to get it over the line. We need to get round the battle of physicality and get into the attitude of playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday. We need to build a resilience in this relentless league and we’re really struggling with that at the moment.
“I need to pick the right team with the right legs and nous to win games like this, I thought I had tonight.
When I took the skipper off, I took that little bit of nous about how to get a game over the line off so you can blame me.
“We took the lead with a nice move, it was a slow start from them, which is uncharacteristic. Ben has that knack of getting in the right place at the right time. Tonight was a good test from a tactical point of view and physical point of view.
“You have to take your hat off to the free-kick that won it, there’s 21 bodies in that box and he’s stuck it in the top corner, it’s a good free-kick there’s no doubt about it.
I have to make sure we have some fit and raring to go players and maybe the addition of one from the transfer market. We still have a lot of work to do. We could have got a point tonight but we have a lot of work to do.”