Peterborough United star brushes aside first goal controversy and will use FA Cup defeat as motivation for games to come

Posh defender Josh Knight leads the complaints after Leeds United score their first goal. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

Leeds took the lead 10 minutes before the break from a free-kick, but there was confusion in the home camp over the timing of the referee’s decision to re-start the game.

It looked like Leeds delivered the set-piece just before referee Sam Allison blew his whistle. Certainly the Posh players hesitated before Ethan Ampadu smashed the ball home from eight yards.

Josh Knight was cautioned for leading the Posh protests and Leeds went on to win the third round tie 3-0. Patrick Bamford scored an absolute screamer early in the second half before a late goal from a corner put some gloss on the final score-line.

Hector Kyprianou heads wide for Posh against Leeds. Photo: David Lowndes.

"I wasn’t sure what was happening,” Kyprianou admitted. “I was in the wall, but a lot of the lads said he blew his whistle as they went to take the kick so they were unprepared for it. It’s something we could have avoided though.

“We started off the game a bit passively as maybe we gave them too much respect, but it was quite an even game when they scored.

"The second goal was a ‘worldie’ which came at a bad time for us. We couldn’t do anything about and then we conceded another goal from a set-piece which we need to stop doing as they are momentum killers.

"Both teams had good spells in the game, but they were clinical in our penalty area and we weren’t in their box.

"I like this sort of game. I love to challenge myself against these sort of players who are the sort of level we want to to get to. I can see in detail what they do and try and implement that into my game.

"We are used to having a lot more of the ball than we had in this game, but the gaffer had prepared us for that. We kept our shape pretty well and conceded two free kicks and one brilliant goal.

“it was a quiet dressing room after the game. We don’t like losing no matter who we are playing against, but we will use it as motivation for the next games.”

Posh host League Two side Crawley in the EFL Trophy on Wednesday (7.30pm) before travelling to Charlton Athletic for a League One match next Saturday.