Not replacing Marriott is riskier than letting him go, concede and collapse and a lovely set-piece play with a strange ending

And now Posh are happy to let one of them leave.

Jack Marriott’s two FA Cup goals in a 3-0 success at dour League Two outfit Salford City on November 16 persuaded McCann to make his bold comment. After all he’d sacrificed one of his two League One Golden Boot winners on the alter of his preferred 4-3-3 formation.

That’s McCann’s decision to make and to be fair to him Marriott had hardly been knocking the starting XI door down when he did get on the pitch. He’d taken part in all 21 League One games before the Boxing Day draw at Charlton, albeit only for a handful of minutes on many occasions.

Marriott will probably not enjoy the irony that he’s about to leave London Road just as Posh revert to a wing-back system that enables McCann to field two forwards.

But it’s a fact Marriott has not scored a League One goal since the opening minutes of the 2-1 defeat at Portsmouth on September 3, so effectively 115 days ago.

There’s never been an issue with the 28 year-old’s attitude and workrate, but there have only been glimpses of the deadly finisher of his 2017-18 League One form at London Road when he had an on-fire Marcus Maddison laying on goals galore for him. He has no-one of that creative quality to feed him in the current squad.

I get why Marriott might want to get away as he must be incredibly frustrated to have played so little after seemingly overcoming the injury issues that have plagued him since a golden two year spell at Posh and then at Derby County in the Championship.

McCann was the man who plucked him from Luton Town Reserves 12 months before the Rams paid £4 million to take a deadly finisher to Pride Park.

And McCann was also the man who tried to take Marriott to Hull City rather then let him return to Posh in the summer of 2021. Marriott must have been happy to see McCann return to Posh in February. He must have fancied recreating happy days at third tier level, but it wasn’t to be despite a promising start to the season which included a goal off the bench in the comeback win on opening day at Cheltenham and a brace in a 4-0 romp against Lincoln City at the Weston Homes Stadium, although he missed a couple of sitters in that latter game as well.

But I don’t get why Posh appear to have ruled out finding a replacement. Given the assumption that Marriott is one of the squad’s big earners, that’s a move that will only prompt the financial conspiracy theorists to hammer at their keyboards. They’ll ignore the insistence from the club on Christmas Day that they won’t be picking up an easy million or two by selling Jack Taylor to Ipswich.

It’s true Ephron Mason-Clark and Kwame Poku are already decent League One players with great potential, but Ricky-Jade Jones and Joe Taylor, despite possessing a powerful weapon in blistering pace, don’t look ready to fire Posh to promotion.

Letting Marriott, who I assume would have improved given regular starting opportunities, leave will only increase the goalscoring burden on skipper Jonson Clarke-Harris, who may yet have his 13th goal of the League One season scored at Charlton yesterday taken away from him by a dubious goals panel. The next highest Posh scorer after the captain is Marriott with four.

Lord help us if Clarke-Harris is injured. Thankfully he’s a warrior who will play through pain, but he’ll need the broadest of shoulders to carry a Posh side who have lost their way badly in recent weeks.

OTHER TALKING POINTS FROM CHARLTON 1, POSH 1 ON BOXING DAY...

1) It seems strange that Posh are seeking full-backs in the January transfer window when they have played the last two games without them. One assumes 4-3-3 will return after the signings are completed. It’s not as though playing three at the back has made Posh look more secure.

Posh defended comfortably against limited opponents at Charlton for 45 minutes, but as soon as they conceded three minutes after the break they creaked horribly. Rookie goalkeeper Will Blackmore immediately made a fine save and rampaging wing-back Sean Clare struck a post after running unchallenged for about 60 yards before striking the inside of a post. That was from a Posh corner with no visiting player charged with defending once Jeando Fuchs had made a poorly-judged interception attempt.

Concede and collapse has been a feature of Posh this season. They got away with it yesterday thanks to Blackmore and poor finishing.

2) It shocked me to realise Blackmore is actually older than the two on-loan goalkeepers above him in the Posh pecking order. The 21 year-old has been a patient onlooker for a couple of seasons now. His first team action before yesterday had been a late substitute appearance in a dead Football League game at Doncaster in May 2021 and an EFL Cup appearance at Stevenage in August when he performed pretty well. He might well keep his place for Thursday’s home game with MK Dons after a confident display of handling at the Valley. He also boots the ball miles which is not a bad skill to have when playing behind an error-prone defence.

3) Posh have scored from a set-piece in back-to-back games which is encouraging. They showed innovation in the opening few minutes at Charlton with a neat move involving a shortish pass to Harrison Burrows and a fine reverse ball to the edge of the box where a Posh midfelder advanced unopposed onto the ball. Strangely that midfielder was Fuchs (zero career goals in around 100 senior appearances) rather than Jack Taylor with predictable results.