Grant McCann says Peterborough United performance against Chelsea's kids was 'embarrassing, unacceptable and indefensible'

Posh were dumped out of the competition at the second round stage by a Malik Mothersille double as well as a 40-yard screamer from Cesare Casadei and a late goal from Ben Elliott..

Posh brought the scoreline back to 2-1 and 3-2 thanks to Jonson Clarke-Harris and Jack Taylor respectively, but they never looked like mustering the quality to get the better of the young Chelsea side.

And McCann was left extremely disappointed with the effort of his players and said he was unable to offer any defence for the performance.

He said: “We were poor from start to finish, particularly in the first half. It was a totally unacceptable performance.

“We were totally embarrassed. I don’t really remember what I said at half time, but there was certainly a lot of shouting and anger.

“I can take a wayward pass or a shot past the post and a player giving their all and it not quite coming off, but what I can’t have is players not running and players not fighting for first balls, second balls and not recovering.

“I covered for the players a little bit after the Bristol game, but I can’t do that tonight.

“We lacked determination and aggression. If a player got beaten they didn’t recover. It wasn’t tactical, we knew what Chelsea were going to be like and we set up to play against that.

“Our second press - when someone goes past you and you’ve got to sprint and recover - was lacking all over the pitch. That’s really hard for me to say because there are not many times I’ve said it this season. That’s something me and my staff need to take responsibility for and look at but I can’t come out and defend that performance."

McCann was particularly disappointed in the manner of the goals Posh conceded. The first came from a Posh corner that led to a Chelsea counter-attack and the third began with a Posh throw-in.

McCann added: “It’s so frustrating because we work so hard from corners. We need to get better at them. We’ve got a decent sized team. We’re not exactly small. Tonight, we just accepted balls coming in, Chelsea players heading them away and them breaking on us in transition.

“It was an embarrassing night for me, the players and everyone connected to the football club as we didn’t lay a glove on them.

“The most annoying goal, and the one that killed the game is the third goal. It comes from our own throw-in. We just throw it to one of their players and again, they break in transition and score and we don’t recover.

“There’s a lot of f work for us to do. We’ve just had an open and honest conversation with the players. It’s going to be a lot of work on the training ground, but we absolutely have to improve on what we’re showing at the minute.”

Posh are in knockout action once again on Saturday as they head to the Montgomery Waters Stadium to face Shrewsbury in the FA Cup second round.