Peterborough Sports sign a former Norwich City player as they seek to soothe FA Cup hearbreak

Chorley celebrate their winning FA Cup goal at Posh. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

Winger Spencer Keller trained with the squad on Thursday night before completing a 28-day loan from King’s Lynn Town.

The 21 year-old has made just one substitute appearance for the National League North leaders this season and is hungry for action. Lynn signed him from Norwich in the summer after he’d had an extended trial at Manchester City. He played age group football for the Canaries.

Keller has been signed to cover for the absence of Ky Marsh-Brown who has spent several days in hospital with a suspected blood infection.

"He’s young and hungry and ideal for us right now,” Sports boss Jimmy Dean said. “Spencer can play on either wing and that’s a position we had to cover after losing Jordan Nicholson and Ky.

"Injuries could well define our season. I’m happy with the squad, but finding like-for-like replacements isn’t easy.”

Dean is hoping for a positive reaction by his players to the heartbreak of falling at the final qualifying hurdle in the FA Cup last weekend. That disappointment was compounded by conquerors Curzon Ashton receiving a cracking first round home draw against Cambridge United.

"That would have been a great fixture for us,” Dean admitted. “We’d probably have been on the television because of the Peterborough v Cambridge angle and because it would have been our first time in the first round.

"I’ve no idea how it will affect us, but training has been positive since. We can’t dwell on it. The league games are all big games for us as they are all new.

"Chorley will be a good side. They have bags of experience. They beat us 3-0 in the FA Cup when they were a step two side on the way to winning promotion to step one and we were a step four team so it shows how far we have come and it gives us a chance to show where we are now.”

Chorley are managed by former Crystal Palace striker Andy Preece who played for Stockport County against Posh in the 1992 Third Division play-off final at Wembley.

They have right-back Adam Henley in their squad. Henley (28) played Premier League football for Blackburn Rovers early in his career and was part of the Chorley squad that knocked Posh out of the FA Cup at London Road in November 2020.

Powerful centre-back Richard Jones is unavailable for Sports.