Peterborough Sports will take confidence and belief into 'mission impossible'

​The city side travel to hot National League North favourites Scunthorpe United, the team managed by legendary former Sports boss Jimmy Dean.

Dean has a huge budget to play with and by all accounts he has spent it wisely, although they laboured to a 2-1 win at newly-promoted Tamworth in their first game.

Sports beat Scarborough Athletic 1-0 at PIMS Park on the same day, following a dominant first-half display with a gritty defensive effort after the break.

"Scunthorpe are everyone’s favourites to win the league and rightly so,” Sports joint-boss Michael Gash admitted. “But with that comes the most pressure and Jimmy Dean will be aware of that.

"They’ve spent some money and two months of their budget would probably cover ours for the season

"People say it’s a free hit for us as no-one will expect us to get anything, but we don’t see it like that.

"We will approach the game the same way we did the Scarborough game and we will take confidence and belief to Scunthorpe because of the way we played.

"We dominated the first-half and missed a couple of good chances, but we had to defend more in the second-half and the boys at the back were immense against a very good side.

"They did have a couple of chances as well, but we were worthy winners.

"If we take that spirit to Scunthorpe anything can happen. Obviously it’s the toughest of fixtures, but we will view it as just another important league game with three points at stake.

"It’s a game to look forward to in front of a bumper crowd and let’s hope we can send them home unhappy.”

Sports completed the loan signing of centre-back Ashton Fox from Posh ahead of the Scarborough game and he was outstanding alongside fit-again Connor Johnson and Lincoln City loanee Hayden Cann in a three-man defence.

Jordan Nicholson and man-of-the-match Josh McCammon also excelled in deeper positions that they would normally occupy.

Hugh Albon-Jones claimed the winning goal with a 20-yard drive three minutes before the break.

Sports were again without top centre-back Ryan Fryatt who will be sent for a scan should his troublesome groin injury fail to clear up.

"Ashton and Hayden are great signings for us,” Gash added. “They were outstanding against Scarborough.

"Ryan Fryatt is an excellent player, but if he was fit to play this weekend we probably wouldn’t select him as the other centre-backs were so good.

"We want Ryan back though. We’ll have to sort a scan out for him if the groin problem doesn't clear up.”

Sports haven’t given up on signing Dutch left-sided player Cuba Meyer who impressed during pre-season, but there are visa complications.

Sports are in National League North action again on Tuesday (August 15) when travelling to Alfreton Town.

Alfreton reached the play-offs last season where they lost to Kidderminster Harriers who went on to win promotion.