Peterborough United chairman recommends international honours for summer signing

Central defender David Okagbue and winger Kyrell Lisbie are the players in question. Okagbue was a £400k signing from Walsall and Lisbie arrived from National League Braintree for an undisclosed fee.

Okagbue (21) is now on the injury list and not expected to play again this month after damaging ankle ligaments in the final minute of the recent 1-1 home draw with Reading. Lisbie (22) scored his sixth goal in all competitions in last Sunday’s 5-2 loss at Lincoln City and also added an assist to his expanding CV.

"It’s frustrating that every time we get going as a team we lose a key player,” MacAnthony said on the latest edition of his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast. "In the last minute the goalkeeper kicked his ankle, not deliberately and not that I’m trying to claim it should have been a penalty, and he’s damaged two ligaments.

“In that game against Reading, David was pinging 40 yard passes with great accuracy to either side of the pitch and he is just a beast defensively.

"I was getting grief on social media from Walsall fans after signing him. They said he couldn’t pass the ball at all, but David has proved them wrong. I went to see him after the Reading game and told him signing him could be the best £400k I’ve ever spent. Tom O’Connor is a class player and David was keeping him out of the side.

"I know David plays for Ireland Under 21s, but the senior side should be having a look at him. He is number one in four of the five defensive metrics.

“Kyrell has also received some criticism which blows my mind. He’s stepped up from non-league and he’s scoring or assisting in pretty much every game. He did both against Lincoln.

“Defensively it’s the best I’ve seen from us for a long time. We got a bloody nose after hitting the wall against Lincoln, but they are a great team who have been together under an excellent coach for a while.

"We are rebuilding, but under our manager we have been improving, and not just in results. Our possession stats have gone up 18%, we are getting three times the number of crosses into the opposition penalty area and we are getting 21 shots in a game.

"We should bury the Lincoln result. We won’t win every game and we didn’t quite pass the test last weekend, but 5-2 wasn’t a fair reflection of the match.”