Peterborough United chairman on a 'nothing to lose' approach, the fall-out from Portsmouth ticket allocation and ignoring sly digs about the club's Wembley sales

MacAnthony admitted he had to ‘go for a long walk’ after a 1-0 loss at the hands of the long-term leaders at the Weston Homes Stadium after a decent Posh display didn’t yield a result they deserved.

He also accepted the result ‘probably’ confirmed his young team aren’t ready to win a League One title, but he also believes Posh are enjoying an ‘exceptional’ season which is far from over. MacAnthony says his team now have nothing to lose as they approach the final eight games of the campaign.

Posh are fourth in League One with an outside chance of finishing in an automatic promotion place, plus they have a trip to Wembley to look forward to against League One rivals Wycombe Wanderers in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy Final next month.

MacAnthony was speaking on Thursday’s edition of his popular ‘Hard Truth’ podcast. He also covered the fall-out from manager Darren Ferguson’s insistence it had been a bad idea to give Pompey fans 4,000 tickets for Saturday’s big game.

“I had to take a long walk after the Portsmouth game,” MacAnthony said. “We were excellent defensively and in midfield, but out forward line was blunt and that hasn’t happened very often this season.

"Portsmouth defended very well. They are very good at what they do. They have been top of League One for a long time for a reason, but if our front players had turned up we would have won comfortably.

"This was our chance to see if we were ready to win a league title and the answer is probably ‘no,’ but we didn’t get dominated and we now move on. There were positives as Ryan De Havilland looked like a central midfielder. He stepped in and was brilliant. Joel Randall was exceptional as well, and the game was well refereed and the atmosphere was good.

"It was disappointing, but that one result won’t define the season. It’s been an exceptional season and now we will just try and win all our games and see where it takes us. We certainly have nothing to lose.

"The stuff about the ticket allocation was a storm in a teacup. Our manager was passionate after the game and I get where he was coming from as he had his ‘football’ head on, but he also understands the club’s decision. Our ticket man, Chris (Brewer), replied on social media. Chris should never have to defend anything he or his staff do as they are brilliant at their jobs.

"You can blame me for the tickets decision. We are a business that loses £3 million to £4 million a year and we can’t turn down any opportunity to raise revenue. We sold a player in January, but we haven’t been paid yet and we’d have missed out on £55k if we hadn’t let Portsmouth fans have the end behind the goal. We can’t turn down that sort of excess revenue which is why we agreed to move our Stevenage game to a Wednesday to make £30k in TV money. We still had tickets for sale on the morning of the game in our areas and that’s not a slight on our fans who have backed up superbly this season.

"But the crowd didn’t dictate the Portsmouth result. It didn’t dictate why we won or lost. If we had 25k fans decisions like this would be a lot easier, but again that’s not a criticism of our supporters. It’s where we are as a club, but we also have a fanbase that is growing which is pleasing

"I see we have been getting stick on social medias about our Wembley sales from bigger clubs, but those slagging us off can only wish they were going to Wembley. I also don’t want to see our fans slagging Wycombe fans off just because we are selling more tickets. All clubs do what they can.

"We’ve sold 20k tickets which is magnificent support and we could get up to 22k, 23k before the game. We’re on an upward trajectory and if some of those fans who are going to Wembley love it and come back to watch us again then even better.”

Posh sold Ephron Mason-Clark to Championship side Coventry City for a reported £5 million in January, but the Sky Blues immediately sent him back on loan to London for the rest of the season.