Peterborough United manager will continue to shoot from the lip after a game, artificial preparations to start for tricky FA Cup tie, reserves travel to Rotherham

Evans had a pop at top scorer Matt Godden after Saturday’s (November 3) disappointing 1-0 defeat at Wycombe. Godden missed a golden chance to score just 10 minutes before Wycombe scored the goal that condemned Posh to a first away defeat of the League One campaign.

Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony was among those to feel Godden had been singled out unfairly.

“Look, I’d sign Matt Godden again tomorrow,” Evans insisted. “He’s been a top player for us this season and he’s received praise from me all season.

“But I believe fans have a right to know what the manager is thinking straight after a game whether it’s good or bad. Celtic are my team and if they have a bad result I want to know what Brendan Rodgers thinks went wrong.

“Matty should have scored at Wycombe. He knows that and I know that. In my opinion if he scores that goal we go onto to the win the game even though we played poorly. As bad as we were we still created the better chances which makes the defeat more frustrating. Ivan Toney and Rhys Bennett also missed good scoring chances.

“And when you’ve been struggling you make poor decisions on the pitch like our decision to not to shoot from a free-kick in the last minute. It was in an area of the pitch made for Marcus Maddison.

“Anyway criticism is part and parcel of fotball. I don’t do social media but I’ve been told our chairman thought our performance was atrocious on Saturday. As the head of the team that’s criticism of me, but can I honestly say the chairman was wrong?

“I can’t, but what I can do is start work the next day and make sure we right the wrongs in time for next weekend. That’s what Matty has done. We won’t sulk about anything, we just get back to work.”

That work includes a reserve team game in the Premier League Cup at Rotherham tomorrow afternoon (November 6) before the entire first team squad and management team will attend a second round FA Youth Cup tie against Luton at the ABAX Stadium (7pm).

Maddison, Mark O’Hara and Colin Daniel are among the first teamers who will play at Rotherham.

Posh are at National League side Bromley in the first round of the FA Cup on Saturday (November 10). They play on a 4G surface so Posh will train on a similar surface all week.

The Posh loan players, Jason Cummings, Tyler Denton and Jamie Walker have all been given permission to play at Bromley. Evans have refused permission for Doncaster to use their on-loan Posh player Jermaine Anderson.

Sunderland’s win at Plymouth moved them above Posh into second place, but Evans insists his team remain in great shape to mount a season-long push for promotion.

“In July we would have accepted where we are now in the league,” Evans added. “I remain convinced we will be stronger in the second-half of the season. We are showing too many inconsistencies at present. We were like two different teams in the same game at Burton and we continued the poor form of that last half an hour into the whole game at Wycombe.

“But we will respond well next week. I don’t believe 4G pitches have any place in adult football, but we will be training on our own surface this week to make sure we are ready for a tough game.”