Peterborough Sports have proved they can compete with the best teams in National League North.

​Sports were beaten 1-0 by Scunthorpe United – a Championship side just over a decade ago – at PIMS park last weekend in front of a bumper 880 crowd.

But Gash and his club took many positives from a tough match that doubled as the homecoming for legendary Sports manager Jimmy Dean.

"We went toe-to-toe with a full-time club that is battling for a title,” Gash stated. "It was a tight game of few chances settled by one moment of quality for their goal, but we should take positives from our performance.

"We competed, we restricted them to shots from outside the penalty area and we had half-chances ourselves.

"There was very little in the game and if we can do against Scunthorpe then we can do it against anyone.

"I’m excited for the rest of the season. It was great to see a big crowd even though a lot were from Scunthorpe. The new terrace was full and the atmosphere was excellent.

"We want more days like this which means staying in this league while continuing to grow.

"It was great to see Jimmy back at the club. He got a great reception from our fans and he deserved it after what he achieved with Sports. He put them on the map.”

A classy 17th minute goal from Connor Roberts settled the game in Scunthorpe’s favour.

Sports’ display was all the more worthy as on-loan star Dion Sembie-Ferris was ineligible to play against his parent club, while in-form defender Matt Tootle was absent because of injury.

And a cut above the eye that required 28 stitches forced skipper and centre-forward Mark Jones off midway through the first-half.

He’s likely to miss Saturday’s trip to Spennymoor and possibly the home game with fourth-placed Chester on Tuesday (February 6, 7.45pm).

Midfielder Dan Lawlor will miss both of those games because of suspension leaving Sports on the hunt for new players.

"Just as we get players back, we lose others,” added Gash. We missed Mark’s physical presence as the ball came back a bit quicker after he went off.

"Spennymoor have fallen away a bit after a bright start, but no away games are easy in this league.

"We will travel up on Friday night and prepare properly and then it’s a tough home game against a big club on Tuesday.”

Sembie-Ferris will return on Saturday and there’s a chance powerful centre-half Connor Johnson will also play after a long injury absence. He was an unused substitute against Scunthorpe.

Sports are 15th in National League North, seven points clear of the relegation zone and 11 points outside the play-off places, but they have games in hand on most teams in the division.