Excellent first half display would have seen Peterborough United deserved victors over Charlton, says boss Grant McCann

Posh had to settle for a 1-1 draw though but that point did bring an end to a damaging run of four straight league defeats.

A Jonson Clarke-Harris header from a corner was deflected over the line after a scramble to rescue a point for Posh after Miles Leaburn had headed the hosts in front early in the second half.

Charlton missed several gilt-edge chances to extend their lead before Posh hit back and went on to hit the bar twice themselves.

Posh remain in 8th but have been joined on 32 points on Port Vale after their victory at home to Morecambe.

McCann said: “I thought we were excellent first half. I don’t think we gave them an opportunity to get at our goal. The only thing that was missing for us was the finish or sometimes the last pass.

“If we’d won it, we’d have deserved to win it based on our first half.

“In the second half, they started really brightly but the two chances we’ve given them are from our own doing. One is a break from our corner and the second one is a poor clearance from our centre half (Ronnie Edwards). These are things we have to get better at. Individual errors are costly. The ones we did make today we got away with and we’ve created some really good chances ourselves.

“Our start to the second half shows what we need to get better at. We are a really young group and it’s very easy to point at the experienced players and talk about managing games better. Yet, for ten to 15 minutes our problems were our own doing. We were playing into their press, not over it.

“They got it spot on and were able to take the ball of us and break- the goal is an example of that- but then we kept doing the same thing another five minutes and we had to recognise that on the pitch.”

In a frantic second half, both Kell Watts and Kwame Poku hit the bar for Posh and McCann was eventually left pleased with his side's response that saw them come from 1-0 down.

He added: “The response was good, we created some really good opportunities. We hit the crossbars twice and the set plays looked dangerous.

"I spoke to Kwame and said he has to go back across the goal in that situation, if he did that I think Ricky scores.

“It’s a point away from home. It stops the rot and we’ve got two homes games coming up. It feels like we’ve not been at home for ages. We are looking forward to them.”

Posh are back in action on Thursday at home to Milton Keynes in Mark Jackson’s second game in charge. His new side beat Forest Green 1-0 in his opener on Monday.

Posh then move on the host Wycombe on New Year’s Day, who moved into the play-off places courtesy of a 2-1 victory against Bristol Rovers.