Peterborough Sports boss puzzled by his team's failure to win after a strong display
Peterborough Sports manager Michael Gash insists there’s plenty of fight left in him and his players even though their relegation battle is looking increasingly hopeless.
Gash was left shaking his head in puzzlement after his side’s 1-0 National League North defeat to Darlington at PIMS Park last weekend. The boss felt his side delivered an excellent all-round display against a disappointingly dour Darlington side.
But Sports couldn’t break down a defensive brick wall and were beaten by a goal in first-half added time.
Naturally, with just six games to go, the situation looks bleak for a team long odds on to be relegated, but Gash is a fighter and so are his players and they will set out to win their remaining matches to see where it takes them.
First up on Saturday (March 28) is a trip to bottom club Leamington who are just one spot, but 14 points adrift of Sports. The city side are five points from safety and surrounded by teams with games in hand on them.
Sports then host King’s Lynn Town on Good Friday (April 3) before travelling to Oxford City on Easter Monday. It’s then AFC Telford at home on April 11, Worksop away on April 18 and the final game of the season at Hereford on April 25. It’s not the most frightening of run-ins, but a teams that hasn’t scored in any of their last four home matches needs to find a huge spark to have any chance.
"Not many people expected us to get anything against such a good Darlington side,” Gash admitted. “But I expected us to win because I have so much belief in the players. I expect us to win every game and that’s what we will keep trying to do.
"There is plenty of fight left in the players and in me. We were short on quality again and we lacked a killer instinct, but I saw a set of players who gave everything. We just didn’t get that bit of luck our hard work deserved. We need to score goals and win games, but we just couldn’t get on the end of anything.
"I’m still puzzled as to how we got nothing from the game. We were the better team out there. We were solid and we made them do what we wanted them to do. In the first-half we dominated the ball, picked up nearly all the second balls and restricted them to nothing until they scored from the only chance they had.
"It was a killer blow and the result was a bitter pill to swallow, but football works like that sometimes. You don’t always get what you deserve and you have to take it on the chin and move on so that’s what we will do.”
INTERNATIONAL CALL
Sports goalkeeper Sam Edwards has been selected for the Great Britain Under 23 side to compete in the Deaf World Cup in Serbia in May.
Edwards is a veteran of two major Deaf Football tournaments with England, the World Cup in 2023 in Malaysia and the Euros in 2024 in Turkey.
Unfortunately playing for GB is different to playing for England as events are self-funded. There is no support from the FA or UK Government. Players have to contribute towards training camps, training and matchday kits, insurances and all on pitch or off pitch equipment.
Edwards has started a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the £2k he needs to take part in Serbia.