Peterborough United boss defends decision to not bring on Tyler Young to face his father Ashley in Everton FA Cup tie

The potential of Posh youngster Tyler Young facing his father Ashley in the FA Cup third round tie at Everton gained much media attention ahead of the match and was perhaps a contributing factor to the game being moved away from the weekend in the first place.

The potentially historic moment did not happen, however, Ashley came off the bench for the home side after 73 minutes but Tyler remained on the bench as Posh brought on forward Malik Mothersille with the game poised at 1-0 Everton with two minutes of normal time remaining.

By the time, Iliman Ndiaye’s penalty made it 2-0 in stoppage time, Posh had no remaining substitutes.

The decision saw Darren Ferguson abused at full time by an unnamed Everton player.

The Posh boss said he did want to bring on the 18-year-old but simply had to do the best for this team.

Thursday night was the fourth time in Young’s Posh career that he had made the first team squad. His only appearance came in the final 28 minutes of the 2-0 EFL Trophy victory over Stevenage in October.

Ferguson said: “The last substitution was a difficult one because I did want to get Tyler on. As much as I wanted to get him on with his dad, I had to do what’s right for my team.

“It was very difficult ,but I’ve got to do what’s best for the team. If the game had been 2-0 at that point, I would have put him on, but at 1-0 I couldn’t. If I sent a central midfielder on at 1-0, I’ve got three forwards sitting on the bench wondering what’s going on.

“One of their players had a bit of a pop at me, which is bang out of order, but I’ve got to do what’s best for out team and, at that point, it’s 1-0 and we’re trying to get a result.

"Quite honestly, I did put Tyler on the bench and I gave him every opportunity but I’ve got to do what’s best for the team. I am sure they will remember it.”

On Friday morning, Ashley Young responded by simply tweeting “GUTTED”, along with a number of outlandish comments from neutrals criticising Ferguson and calling for him to be sacked, prompted a response from Posh owner Darragh MacAnthony backing his manager.

He tweeted: “This nonsense has to stop. My manger was 100% correct in his actions. This wasn’t some friendly or exhibition event.

"Tyler is doing fantastic with our 21’s and progressing phenomenally with bright future but bringing him on at that time considering circumstances around game with us one down with minutes left was not right thing for team.

"Putting stupid tweets out asking for him to be sacked is unintelligent and frankly moronic. In time even Ashley will appreciate this as opposed to his current feeling around it.”