Peterborough United manager proud and full of praise for his side, but disappointed to only take a point against high-flying Bournemouth

Posh led a Championship fixture for the first time since January 25 courtesy of Jack Marriott’s 100th career goal and put in an impressive performance throughout the 90 minutes, despite being pegged back early in the second half.

McCann freshened up his side by making six changes from defeat to Huddersfield and got a strong reaction from his side.

Posh remain bottom of the Championship, but are now seven points from safety with 11 matches to go, seven of them at home.

McCann said: “It was a pleasing performance, but I’m disappointed with a point. One lapse of concentration has cost us and they’ve got people at the top end of the pitch who will punish you. All in all though, I’m proud of the boys for showing more grit and determination.

“They’ve come to one of the best teams in the division and we’ve given them a real good game. I thought we caused them a lot of problems tonight.

“It’s a good goal from Jack. It’s his 100th career goal, and it’s great for him to get that. The front two were really good today.

“When you’re coming to a place like this, you don’t want to play into their press. We wanted to invite them in and play over it. I made the changes to freshen up the team as there’s been a lot of games in a short space of time and they all put a big shift in.

“I thought towards the end there was nothing really clear cut for Bournemouth. There were some long-range shots, but they weren’t cutting us open and we were defending every ball that came into our box.”

McCann also made a significant tactical change, employing Ronnie Edwards at the right of the back three rather than his usaul position in the middle. He was replaced by Josh Knight. He also brought Jack Taylor back in from the start for what was his first appearance since January 25 against Birmingham.

His selection was noticeable for the fact that no loan players featured in the starting XI, with Reece Brown, Hayden Coulson and Callum Morton dropping out of the squad entirely.

Joe Taylor (19) came off the bench for his senior debut in the second half.

McCann added: “I made the change a little bit to combat Dembele, but also to use Josh Knight’s physicality against Solanke in the middle and he was really aggressive against him all game. It also freed up Ronnie to get up on the ball more and I thought he did very well against Dembele, who is tough to play against.

“Jeando Fuchs is full of energy, I love this kid. He’s the kind of player I like, sheer energy, sheer aggression and just wants to run and fight and can handle the ball in tight spaces.

“It was great to see Jack Taylor get 65 minutes and he’s feeling good. He’s done well in the game and that will put him in a good place.

“There were four academy graduates on the pitch and the end and that is really important to me and the football club.

“Joe Taylor did great after coming on and he got a big round of applause in the changing room.

“I wanted to have a look at people. I’ve only just come into the building and there is a bigger picture here. I’m looking more long term. The immediate thing is trying to stay in the Championship and we’ll never give up on that, but I’m also mindful of the fact I want to see other people.

“I want to see players contracted to the club and I want to see younger players. That doesn’t mean the loan players won’t be involved though. We had Bali Mumba with us today and he’s a player I really like and I haven’t seen much of yet. It was just about seeing our own players for the future and I was proud of the boys’ performance tonight.

“It takes time for the players to understand our ideas and how we work, but I hope we can build off that and take that into the next two home league games and see it we can accumulate some more points.”

Posh were aided by Stoke’s Lewis Baker scoring a 95th equaliser away at Barnsley to make the score 1-1. Barnsley are two points ahead of Posh.