Brad, Chris and Lucca were the big winners in the eyes of Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson

Posh lost 3-1 at the Championship club’s training ground, but Conn-Clarke scored the Posh goal, Ihionvien was a muscular presence up front and teenage centre-back Mendonca impressed while playing the entire 90 minutes.

Mendonca was the only Posh man to play the whole game as senior defenders Sam Hughes and Oscar Wallin were both absent. Hughes is still recovering from a minor summer operation and won't play for another fortnight. He will be ready for the start of the League One season at Cardiff City on August 2 though.

Wallin was protected by Posh boss Darren Ferguson after a strenuous week of 15 training sessions and 10 gym sessions in pre-season so far. “Oscar is not used to double sessions,” Ferguson explained.

The manager was pleased with the performance even though they looked ragged in the final stages when they conceded twice soon after Conn-Clarke’s equaliser.

Conn-Clarke has impressed Ferguson in pre-season as has Ihionvien who appears to be back in favour after he was placed on the transfer list towards the end of last season amid suggestions of a poor attitude.

"I don’t bear grudges and Brad has come back to the club and worked very hard,” Ferguson said. “He has put the effort in and as long as he does that I won’t have a problem with him. He was a handful in this game and he is definitely back in my thoughts as he offers us something different as a striker.

"Chris looks as though he has the bit between his teeth. Those who were here last season now know what we are about so they should come on. It was a great finish from Chris. It might have looked easy as the net was empty, but he was still 30 yards out.

"It was a competitive game and a really good game for both teams. In the first-half I felt we looked in control in and out of possession. In the second-half we got a bit ragged towards the end, but that can happen in these games and we did have a very young back four at that point.

"I like Lucca though. He’s a tough lad with a great attitude. We have done a lot of work on being compact off the ball and it showed in the first-half.

"Overall I have to be pleased as we won’t face this standard of opposition very often. They still have Premier League players and they have a lot of very good youngsters.”