Peterborough United chairman lets rip at ‘disgraceful’ away record, his toothless team and certain individual players also cop it

MacAnthony was irritated by another toothless and ultimately unsuccessful away performance at Blackpool last Saturday (Deceember 18). The home side came from behind to win 3-1 with two late goals.

He criticised goalkeeper Dai Cornell and full-backs Nathan Thompson and Joe Tomlinson, while implying frustration at the performance of Jonson Clarke-Harris at Bloomfield Road.

“I feel for the manager,” MacAnthony said on today’s (December 21) edition of his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast. “All that preparation for the game and £3k-4K spent on an overnight stay for nothing. We may as well have sent them up on the day of the game.

“It’s time for the players to get together and beat the **** out of each other.

“No matter how bad a side you are losing 11 out of 12 away games is disgraceful. It just shouldn’t happen. It’s a certainty if this keeps happening we won’t be playing in the Championship next season.

“I like the shape we played, but we were toothless up top. Blackpool weren’t. They had less possession, but they scored three goals.

“The crossing stats were telling. Blackpool delivered 26 crosses of which eight were successful, while we delivered 16 crosses and only two were successful. You won’t score goals with those numbers.

“All three Blackpool goals came from crosses because they got seven players into the penalty area, but when Kwame Poku delivered a great cross late in the game we had two players in the penalty area and our striker wasn’t even moving.

“In a midfield diamond the full-backs need to provide some quality, but it didn’t happen.

“Of course we suffered some bad luck with the second goal, but our target man striker didn’t do his job and hold the ball up. There was still time to get back. Instead we gave way and conceded a third after getting caught on the edge of our own area and the goalkeeper should then have done better.

“Watching us is like hearing the same record over and over again. Eventually it gets on your nerves. When we get into good positions we just don’t pull the trigger.

“This is big boy football now. I happen to think we have enough in the dressing room now to survive, but some are performing way below their true level and the manager is fed up with some of them.”

Posh have conceded 33 goals in their 12 away matches - the worst in the division by 11.

Posh have scored just six goals in those away matches - the second worst in the division after Derby County (5).

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