Peterborough Sports will learn from their mistakes in time for Tuesday's 'six-pointer' in Bedford
Peterborough Sports need to carry an impressive second-half performance at high-fliers Radcliffe into a crunch National League North relegation battle at Bedford Town on Tuesday night.
Sports went down 2-1 at the team in fourth on Saturday and slipped three points behind Bedford who beat Chorley 2-0 on their 4G surface.
But the city side can take confidence from the way they played on a sodden surface after falling 2-0 down at the break in Greater Manchester. Luca Miller pulled a goal back 15 minutes from time and Sports had the chances to score further goals. Phil Brown’s side remain two points and a place above the drop zone, but a couple of sides below them have multiple games in hand.
"We were a little naive in the first-half at Radcliffe,” Sports boss Brown told Peterborough Community Radio. “It was young players making uneducated mistakes and we must learn from that and make sure it doesn’t happen again in the six-pointer at Bedford.
"Sometimes you have to hit the front man and get the ball in behind, but we played with a real purpose in the second-half on a pitch that became very difficult and we gave another very good side a run for their money. We left ourselves an uphill task, but we were climbing quickly by the end and we had the chances to get something from the game.
"We are learning on the job, but we are making the rest of the league know we are still alive and kicking with a group of players who are giving everything for the shirt.
"I’m looking forward to Tuesday already. It’s an artificial surface, but we train on one all the time so we know we can play on them.”
Goalkeeper Peter Crook missed the Radcliffe game because of injury, but club captain Dan Jarvis was back in action as a substitute after a lengthy injury lay-off.
Former Peterborough United striker Shaun Jeffers can’t play on Tuesday as he is on loan at Sports from Bedford.