Peterborough Sports hit rock bottom bottom after a home drubbing
Peterborough Sports returned to the bottom of the National League North after a crushing 5-0 home defeat at the hands of AFC Fylde at PIMS Park.
Not even the pre-match signings of well-travelled former Football League forward Mustapha Carayol – a player who numbers Leeds United and Ipswich Town among his old clubs – and current Cambridge United defender Harry Dawson could inspire the city side against one of the division’s high-fliers.
A nightmare run of four goals in 14 first-half minutes effectively condemned Sports to a sixth defeat in eight games and an injury just before the break for joint player-manager Michael Gash just rubbed salt into gaping wounds. Ironically Gash had cursed his side’s luck with injuries before the match.
Fylde, relegated from the National League last season, had a goal wiped out for offside on 17 minutes, but they were not to remain disappointed for long.
Less than a minute later Daniel Ormerod went round Sports’ keeper Peter Crook before slotting into an empty net and four minutes after that home midfielder Elliott Whitehouse conceded a penalty that Luca Thomas expertly converted.
Sports almost replied instantly, but visiting ‘keeper Zac Jones just beat Theo Williams to a Sam Straughan-Brown through ball, but on 28 minutes Ormerod converted direct from a free kick and Danny Mayor soon made it 4-0 with a neat finish. Mayor was a highly accomplished midfielder for Bury and Plymouth in his heyday and he completed the scoring with a precise finish just before the hour mark, just moments after he’d been frustrated by a fine Crook save.
Sports kept plugging away with a Ryan Fryatt header from a Josh Cavallo cross skimming the crossbar and Josiah Dyer fired wide after a fine Fryatt pass.
Fylde were denied a sixth goal when a terrific block from Whitehouse denied Ormerod his hat-trick.
Sports: Crook ,Fryatt, Gash (sub 40 mins, Powell), Hickingbottom, Dawson, McLintock, Whitehouse, Straughan-Brown (sub 63 min, Cavallo), Jones (sub 61 mins, Dyer), Carayol (sub 78 mins, Booth), Williams.
Unused Subs: Edwards, Fox, Miller.
Fylde: Jones, Mitchell (sub 60 mins, O’Kane), Taylor, Merrie (sub 60 mins, Wilson), Thomas, Mayor, Healy-Byrne (sub 56 mins, Coates), Brockbank, C. Whelan, T. Whelan, Ormerod.
Unused Subs: Boyes, McFayden, Morris, Meadowcroft.
Attendance: 370