Grant McCann wants more from his Peterborough United squad players after defeat at Wycombe that lacked bravery

A Posh side without Jack Taylor and Kwame Poku fell to a 3-1 defeat at Adams Park despite taking the lead in the first half through Harrison Burrows’ second goal in two games. They were further hindered by Ricky-Jade Jones limping off midway through the first half.

Posh were helped out by a 0-0 draw between Bolton and Barnsley that meant they only fell one position to fifth, courtesy of conceding Anis Mehmeti’s goal in the final seconds.

McCann refused to let his side fall back on excuses and insisted he wanted to see more from his back-up options.

He said: “The injuries are no excuse. We have players that are ready to come on and play in those positions. They have to be more ready than we showed and it’s disappointing.

"We can blame not having Ricky, Jack Taylor or Kwame, but we’ve got a good squad of players and we just didn’t get it right today.

“I thought (substitute) Joel Randall started brightly but then we didn’t get the ball down or to our wide players quick enough.

"We lacked bravery and someone to get on the ball and dictate play. We also didn’t show the calmness that we needed to show to take the sting out of the game to get us on the front foot.

“We just didn’t execute our plan of trying to get that first pass off and be controlled and calm in our play. We were rushed at times and could have been more controlled.”

Posh registered seven shots on target to Wycombe’s four and both Jonson Clarke-Harris and Harrison Burrows saw good chances to score saved by home goalkeeper Max Stryjek.

McCann was left rueing those opportunities after the final whistle.

He added: “I thought they were better in key moments. They took their chances, we didn’t. it was a really good goal to put us 1-0 up and you’re thinking go and get another one before half time and we had a big chance through Joel to do that. On another maybe he goes across the goal and then we concede and lose three headers.

“We said coming into this game we can’t lose headers and if you lose one, don’t lose the second.

“In the second half, we didn’t get that bounce that we’ve seen over the last few games. There wasn’t much in it, but it’s a disappointing goal to concede. We’ll have to have at how Vokes got free in our box.

“We had opportunities, at 2-1 we should score, Jonno knows he should score, Harrison has a really good chance to put one across and Harrison has also had one tipped around the post. It just didn’t go in.”

Posh are back at Adams Park in EFL Trophy action on Tuesday (October 18) before travelling to face Oxford in League One on Saturday (October 22).