Grant McCann hits out at shameful and harmful abuse of Peterborough United's million pound man Joel Randall

Joel Randall of Peterborough United in action against Wycombe Wanderers. Photo: Joe Dent.

Randall has been getting closer to scoring his first Posh goal in recent weeks, including hitting the post just minutes after coming against Wycombe in the league meeting last Saturday (October 15) but his performances have drawn significant criticism on social media.

Sarcastic chants were also heard during Saturday’s game, which prompted Co-owner Jason Neale to leap to the 22-year-olds defence. He insisted that he remains confident that Randall will become a top player, the same as Harrison Burrows and Ricky-Jade Jones who also took criticism early in their Posh careers.

Darragh MacAnthony also suggested this week that a minority of fans had gone over the top with their criticism.

McCann has now weighed in on the issue, calling some of the posts “shameful” and “harmful.”

He said: “What I will say to the fans is that we have got a really good group of players and they all want to do well for the club and it’s just shameful and harmful to see” things like that when people are trying to do their best.

“I don’t know whether Joel sees that stuff, we haven’t brought it to his attention, but I’ve said it for many years, social media is a dark place.

“It can be used as a positive but unfortunately with the way the world works at the minute people can say anything about you at any point and nothing gets done about it.

“It’s disappointing. It’s not like I would go to Tesco and someone would not serve my food properly and I would go on social media and say, the guy that served me was rubbish. I just wouldn’t do it.

"That’s the limelight football can put you in. People can just annihilate you at any point and it’s people that have never kicked a ball in their lives. They probably go home and play Football Manager and judge these players. It’s just wrong.

I get they pay their money but it’s my job to try and get the best out of players and be like a father figure at times when things go wrong or they don’t have a good performance.”