Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony on Cobblers, Ivan Toney, Idris Kanu, JCH, squad depth and a brilliant recruitment meeting

In the latest edition of his popular ‘Hard Truth’ podcast released on Friday, MacAnthony covered many Posh topics including the Cobblers game, squad depth, Ivan Toney and a transfer window which closed in six days.

Hard Truth

LIE DETECTOR

"If that Northampton player meant to lob our goalkeeper than I’d happily take a lie detector test and pay £1k to charity based on the outcome.”

GOALIE DEFENCE

"I loved what Nicholas Bilokapic was trying to do. He was being true to how we want to play, which is absolutely the right way. He could easily have tipped the ball over the bar, but, before he’s tried to catch it, he’s looking to see where our right-back is because he wants to keep the game moving. I won’t criticise him for that. We are a young side who will make mistakes.”

LOVING THE STYLE

"We delivered a 6/10 performance at Northampton, but still could have won easily. We missed two chances early on and if they had gone it, it could have been a mauling. Credit to Northampton though. They are no mugs. They dug in, but even stewards as I left the ground said they weren’t sure how they won the game. I’m loving how we are trying to play. We had 38 shots in two away games at Barnsley and Northampton.”

BACK-UP BOYS

"Poeple are still talking too much about our strength in depth. The subs helped us dig out the win at Reading. They will only get better by playing regularly. Our Under 18 and under 21 coaches have been frustrated by the results they’ve been getting, but they’ve been told their job is to improve the under 18s so they can play for the under 21s and improve the under 21s so they can play in the first-team. Don’t be fooled by those results either. We had a man sent off at Bristol City and lost in the last minute after having like 25 shots and we lost 1-0 at Bournemouth after their goalkeeper made seven world class saves.”

RECRUITMENT MEETING

"We had a brilliant meeting about recruitment. There were 12 of us there and we worked out what we would do if certain players left. The manager is very relaxed about things. We will be very surgical about our recruitment. There won’t be a flurry of signings. At the end of the meeting Barry Fry was given a list of names to work on.

JCH

"There are three clubs interested in ‘Jonno.’ I expect they will try and take the mickey for the first three days of next week, but if they don’t come up with what we want I’ll tell them to **** off and ‘Jonno’ will stay with us."

INS AND OUTS

“I’m expecting some movement in both directions. Everyone is asking me about Ronnie Edwards, but I don’t want to talk about certain players when there is a big game against Derby tomorrow. Our players know we will do deals if they are right for our club.”

IDRIS KANU

"Sometimes you have to go down to get back up in football. George Boyd and Jack Taylor have shown that in the past. Idris has been brilliant for Barnet and it’s great he’s being linked with a move back into the Football League. The fractured jaw he suffered when with us set him back a bit, but he’s over that now. He’s a great lad who deserves success. We have a chunk of money coming our way if Idris moves as well.”

IVAN TONEY”I heard what Ivan said about a verbal agreement with us to sell him. Well he didn’t have a verbal agreement with me and I did him a favour not selling him to one of the two clubs chasing him at the time, and I told Ivan, his father and his agent that. I told him to stay, win a Golden Boot and a promotion and then have the pick of clubs. His career path has worked out great and I hope he is back scoring goals soon enough. He’s changed agents to one of the best in the business and if here’s a big move to be made the agents and Brentford will sort it.”