Peterborough Sports boss slams an 'unacceptable' performance a week before one of the biggest games in the club's history

The city side went down 3-0 at Buxton in a National League North fixture, one of only two in the division to survive the cold snap which helped Sports retain seventh place, the last play-off position.

Dean admitted it was his side’s worst display of the season and they have lost the chance to bounce back straight away as Tuesday’s scheduled home fixture with Gloucester City was postponed today.

That means Sports’ next fixture is an FA Trophy third round tie at former Premier League Oldham Athletic on Saturday.

“It was a bad day,” Dean admitted. “It was the poorest display of the season. We struggled to compete and we appeared to down tools quite early which is obviously unacceptable.

"The game probably shouldn’t have gone ahead. Buxton have a 3G pitch, but you’d never have known as it was covered in snow. We drove there in snow, it snowed throughout the match, and then we drove home again through snow.

"Having said that we must be better than what we showed here. They must have been wondering how on earth we are in a play-off place.

"I was barking orders all game, but got no response at all which is not like us. We conceded a penalty early on which came off the back of a poor pass out of defence and we pretty much gave them the last two goals. They didn’t have to work hard to beat us.

"I wanted to play tomorrow as I’d have made a 4 or 5 changes and I doubt Gloucester would fancy a cold night at the Bee Arena on the back of a 6-2 home defeat at the weekend.”