Peterborough Sports boss hails a 'fantastic' performance from his history-making side

Sports reached the quarter-finals for the first time in the club’s history with a dramatic 1-0 win. Steele’s managerial partner Michael Gash, a former Kidderminster player, claimed the winning goal in the 93rd minute following some superb work from fellow striker Kaine Felix. The tie was three minutes away from a penalty shootout against a Harriers side who left some star players on the substitutes’ bench, as Gash had predicted before the game.

Over 600 fans watched Sports book a place in Monday’s quarter-final draw where they will be joined by National League big hitters Barnet, Solihull Moors, Gateshead and Bromley. Northern Premier League side Macclesfield Town are also through to the last eight, while the ties between Bishop’s Stortford and Coalville, and Wealdstone and Hendon were postponed until Tuesday because of waterlogged pitches.

Wealdstone are another National League side, but Sports have knocked two sides from that division out of the competition as they moved to within two wins of Wembley. Dagenham & Redbridge were their other top-flight victims.

"It’s obviously the best win I’ve experienced in my year as a manager,” Steele, a former Posh and Manchester United goalkeeper, said.

"I can only describe it as an out of body experience. Sometimes when you win with a last minute goal you lose control of everything. It happened to me a few times as a player and it was the same here.

"I did say to the players afterwards that if we’d lost this game in normal time or on penalties the post-match debrief would have been exactly the same as their attitude and application, as well as their general performance, was fantastic.

“We played really well. Kidderminster came on strong in the final 20 minutes when they sent some big players on from the bench so we had to revert to playing on the break a bit.

"And the breakaway at the end from Kaine when he somehow managed to find the composure to deliver a perfect cross for the goal was phenomenal.”

The National League results from Saturday were not too bad for Sports either. They remain 16th, six points clear of the relegation zone, although they have a tough outing next Saturday (February 17) when they travel to sixth-placed Brackley. They then travel to fourth-placed Curzon Ashton on Tuesday, February 20.

Curzon Ashton put another dent in Scunthorpe United’s title hopes yesterday when they won 1-0 at Jimmy Dean’s side.