Peterborough United boss 'feels the pain' of frustrated fans and calls for players 'desperate' to play for the club

Posh have now picked up just one win in 13 league matches and head into the final week of the season still yet to confirm their status in League One for the 2025-26 campaign.

Despite Harry Leonard giving Posh the lead, they were not able to hold on and fell to a 3-1 defeat after a hat-trick from Stockport’s Louie Barry.

A dejected Williams admitted to feeling flat at full-time, but insisted he was not concerned about the situation with Posh still having two homes to complete the season. He also stated that onl-loan defender Peter Kioso was not in the squad because of illness.

Williams said: “I’m feeling very flat. We knew it would be a very tough game, but after scoring the first goal, we should have been able to protect the lead better. We conceded two goals in a very similar way and missed a hatful of chances.

“There is no need for this much pain. We were almost in exactly this position six weeks ago. January had something to do with the change in attitude and performance. We need lots of players that are happy to here. It’s a brilliant club, players should be happy to be here. We need players who are desperate to perform for the club.

“I feel the pain of the fans. It’s just very difficult for them to see their team - the best performing in the country at Christmas pretty much - now a shadow of itself.

“I’m trying to kick every ball with them, which I don’t think is a great way to be, but there’s certain things I can see coming and I’m trying to help them avoid a pitfall. I’m trying to help them recognise a player that is on or to make a run when they don’t quite see it.

“I was frustrated because we scored, but it still felt like we were making it a lot harder for ourselves than we needed to with unforced errors and not doing our work early enough. We did not shut doors well enough and we were too slow to get across the pitch. We let them break on us and were loose on the ball.

“We scored a goal and created chances in the second half, but we are lacking that killer instinct. We played this side in October and won convincingly. When I watch that back, the difference in energy, running power and conviction is quite stark. We were thoroughly beaten today.

“We made too many mistakes and allowed too much space in the channel for Louie Barry and paid the price for it. It’s not an accident we concede early in halves so often. It shows we are not able to refocus and maintain any performance levels for the first exchanges of the second period. It takes us too long. We looked gassed and need to find more energy for the two home games. We try so many things, but we’re still suffering with the same problems.

“Kyrell Lisbie had three one-on-ones, you have a chance in any game of football if you can create big chances like that, but we didn’t take the chances when they came and left ourselves with a mountain to climb.

“The players have performed really well at times and were brilliant from when I arrived up until January. I know there is a good group there, but we just need to remember how important it is.

“I’m not concerned, we have two home games and we are looking forward to those. We just need to recover and try to come out with energy and aggression in those games and come out with some points. We have two chances to put things right. We need to see a response.”

Posh can secure their safety if they take just a point from any of their remaining games. The first opportunity is on Tuesday night (April 28) when they host Mansfield Town. The Stags were 4-1 victors at Huddersfield on Saturday and sit 11th in the table.