Peterborough United suffer injury and form concerns at Stevenage

Posh boss Grant McCann admitted there was little in his side’s display in a 1-1 draw at League Two opposition that pleased him. He also had a couple of injury scares to contend with, the most serious concerning experienced defender Nathan Thompson.

In-form forward Joel Randall had already withdrawn from the match in the warm-up with a thigh issue before Thompson was forced off in the early stages of a competitive contest with a knee problem.

Attacker Kwame Poku missed the game because of illness, although there was a surprise to return to action for Sammie Szmodics, who had been absent from the Tuesday win at Deeping, also because of illness.

New midfielder Ben Thompson missed the game because of a knock, but should return in time to face National League Barnet at the Hive on Saturday (3pm).

Jonson Clarke-Harris rescued a draw for Posh with a header from a Harrison Burrows cross after Stevenage had opened the scoring from the penalty spot. It was a third goal in 24 hours for Clarke-Harris.

Thompson hasn’t played competitively since February 19 after suffering a shoulder injury. Posh are not exactly flush with right-back replacements with rookie Benjamin Mensah the only natural alternative, although winger Joe Ward has played in the position in the past.

"Nathan just landed badly,” McCann said. “There is no need to take any chances at this time of the year so we will assess him fully on Friday and hope that’s it not to bad.

"Joel felt something in his thigh before the game so he didn’t play as a precaution while Kwame was affected by a sickness bug which has appeared in the camp lately.

"Sammie missed a day’s training and a 30 minute runout at Deeping, but he got an hour tonight and we caught up the rest with his training.

"It is all about getting minutes into the legs, but I couldn’t go away from that performance and say there was a lot that I liked. There is clearly so much more for us to do and lots and lots to work on.

"We knew it would be a competitive match and that’s why we picked this fixture as a Steve Evans team will always make a game a test. In the first-half we didn’t keep our wide players high enough or wide enough. We were too narrow and passed the ball back too often.

"In the fisrt 15 minutes of the second-half we did it better and that’s why we scored with a great header from a great cross.

"It’s now about moving forward and working towards the team for the game at Cheltenham (the first League One game of the season on July 30) and that’s what we’ll do by drilling stuff into the players on the training pitch and with video work.”

Youngsters Mackenzie Lamb, Roddy McGlinchey and Andrew Oluwabori did impress McCann.