Peterborough Sports boss takes positives from a heavy FA Trophy defeat at Scunthorpe United
Peterborough Sports manager Phil Brown insists he took plenty of positives from a 5-0 FA Trophy loss at higher level Scunthorpe United on Saturday.
The city side were well in the game at the break as they trailed by just one goal, but defensive lapses enabled the National League high fliers to ease to victory.
Sports now turn their attentions to a tough National League North game at second-placed South Shields on Tuesday (December 16) when a point would lift them out of the relegation zone.
Sports have received a boost with news midfielder Sam McLintock has signed a contract extension at PIMS Park. Forward Luca Miller is also believed to be close to agreeing a new deal.
Brown made seven changes to his starting line-up at Scunthorpe and was pleased with a lot of what he saw. He admitted work in both penalty areas needs to improve though.
"A 5-0 defeat can sound embarrassing,” Brown told Peterborough Community Radio. “But I will take a lot from the game. Some of the play we delivered when we had the ball was very good to watch. We put some good moves together and Connor Wood must have delivered 15-20 good quality crosses, but we didn’t get on the end of any of them.
"We had control of midfield areas, so much so that they changed their system at half-time. We still started the second-half well, but the quality in both penalty areas was the difference between the sides in the end.
"We don’t have enough young lads who want to enjoy defending. There was no physicality in our defending at all. We defended so poorly as a collective and as individuals. We need to be prepared to put bodies on the line. We need to put our head on balls in both penalty areas.
"Clearly we have a lot to so, but there is also a lot to work with. Sam McLintock was different class, Shaq Coulthirst had two great chances and Connor Wood was very good. We just need to get the balance right more consistently.”