New Peterborough United manager needs time to get rid of a losing mentality and why Kwame Poku wasn’t involved against Hull City

There was no new manager bounce for Posh or McCann as they went down 3-0 at home to his former club Hull City in a Championship fixture at the Weston Homes Stadium today (February 26).

The defeat, and a second win in a row for Barnsley, has dropped Posh to the bottom of the table for the first time this season. They remain eight points from safety with just 13 matches to go with the next two at top three sides Huddersfield (March 4) and Bournemouth (March 8).

Posh have not now won in 11 Championship fixtures. They’ve won one of their last 19.

“It’s obviously a really disappointing result,” McCann said. “It was very frustrating. We didn’t give our fans anything to get excited about, but we will in time.

“It will take time for the players to adapt to me and to get used to my principles. Managers see the game differently. We didn’t have a lot of time to work with them which is not an excuse for today, but it’s obvious there is much we need to get better at like our play in transition and our reaction times.

“But there is a lot of potential here. We have work on their confidence and that losing mentality. We need to get some positivity into them and it all takes time. A lot of these players were used to winning every week and now they are not.

“That’s not to say we won’t win games, but we need to be able to win consistently.

“We gifted Hull all three goals. We gave the ball away for all three of them. You lose the ball to players as good as Keane Lewis-Potter and you will be punished.

“We had started the game on the front foot, but the sucker punch for the first goal knocked us back a bit.”

McCann fielded three centre-backs and wing-backs in today’s game. Sammie Szmodics continued his return from exile, while Jack Marriott and Callum Morton were paired up front. Posh registered just one shot on target, a weak one from Szmodics towards the end of the match.

Kwame Poku was left out of the squad altogether.

“We picked a team based on who we felt was right for the role within the system,” McCann added. Some did well, some didn’t. It’s more about the style of play and how we play rather than formations.

“I like Kwame. He’s already a good player, but I felt this game wouldn’t suit him.

“The confidence is low in some players and it’s up to me and some of the players to carry the burden so the younger ones don’t get the heat.

“This defeat will hurt, but we can’t dwell on it.”