Peterborough Sports officials and players confronted by angry fans as disastrous defeat pushes them to the brink of National League North relegation
Manager Michael Gash and his Peterborough Sports players were left addressing disgruntled fans after an embarrassing defeat at Leamington that pushed the side to the brink of relegation from the National League North.
Sports were beaten 4-2 at the league’s bottom side on Saturday and now sit seven points adrift of safety with just five games to play.
Ahead of kick-off, Gash labelled the game as must-win and the trip to the Your Co-Op Community stadium seemed a perfect opportunity to reignite their survival bid considering Leamington were 14 points behind Sports and had their own relegation confirmed on Tuesday night.
Instead, ‘The Brakes’ rallied in the face of adversity to push Sports ever closer to the drop and it all became too much for some fans at full-time, who let Gash and the squad know of their displeasure.
Goals from Mark Jones and Max Booth were not enough on the day as Sports’ misery was compounded by victory for rivals Oxford City over Kidderminster, making it highly likely that the club’s four-year spell in the sixth-tier looks to be coming to an end.
Things had started well as Sports dominated the opening 14 minutes against a side looking low on confidence. Jones put Sports in front after just seven minutes when he volleyed in Connor Wood’s dipping corner.
The momentum ended abruptly, however, when Adam Walker’s shot was flicked onto the bar by Peter Crook, before it deflected onto the post and rolled only just over the line.
Crook perhaps could have done better against an effort so close to him, but there was no doubt about his culpability for the second home goal, just three minutes later, when his weak punch from a corner fell right to Theo Streete, who slammed the ball into the roof of the net.
Sports were rattled by those two goals and had to fight to keep the deficit to just one. Crook did produce a good save to deny Dan Meredith in the six-yard box and Eric Yahaya could have doubled the lead with a header he placed narrowly wide.
Sports still almost went in at the break level though, but Dan Jarvis saw an effort late in the half crash off the corner of post and bar.
There was no great response from Sports in the second half and within just seconds, Crook was forced into a double save. He had to stop the ball three times in quick succession five minutes later.
With 20 minutes to play, Kaine Felix poked wide when through on goal, but 12 minutes from time, Sports found their lifeline. Substitute Booth showed great skill to chest down Jones’s deep cross and rifle it into the corner.
Sports could not build on that though and the game immediately swung back towards the hosts. With 82 minutes on the clock, Tyrone Lewthwaite headed a cross down and past Crook and with Sports having to throw everything at Leamington, they were caught on the break in the 99th minute. Frank Tattum was able to round Crook and poke into an empty net.
This cued scenes of devastation from the Sports players at full-time and anger from some of the fans behind the goal.
Sports: Crook, Wood, Oakley, Kamga, Willis, Jarvis (sub McLintock, 76 mins), Whitehouse (sub Beresford, 86 mins), Carayol (sub Booth, 53 min), Felix, Miller, Jones
Unused subs: Edwards, Gash, Davies, Coulthirst.
Leamington: Brearey, Meredith, Streete, Blythe, Walker, Williams, Clarke, Brogan, Pais (sub Farmer, 54 mins), Yahaya (sub Lewthwaite, 54 mins), Berridge (sub Tattum, 66 mins).
Not used: Quaynor, Glennon, Humphries, Alonzi.
Attendance: 522.