Peterborough United's Jack Marriott excited for partnership with Jonson Clarke-Harris after both score against Cheltenham

Both strikers managed to get on the scoresheet as Posh turned around a 2-0 half time deficit to defeat Cheltenham Town 3-2 on the opening day of the season on Saturday (July 30).

Marriott was one of three players introduced at half time as Posh sought to chase the game with a switch to a wing back formation. The plan worked as Marriott started the comeback, dinking home fellow substitute Joe Ward’s cross, before Clarke-Harris sealed the points with the second and third goals.

Both men feature prominently in the bookies odds to win the League One Golden Boot, with Clarke-Harris favourite with many companies. Both have won the award with the club in League One before and will aim to do so again.

"If you look at some of the games we played in together last season, Bournemouth away, QPR away, there were some really good performances. We did form a good relationship and laid down the foundations of a good partnership and we just want to build on that. We want to play well, win games and score goals” Marriott replied when asked about the budding partnership.

The opportunities for the pair to play together last season were limited mainly to the fitness of Marriott; who missed around five months of the season with a hamstring injury sustained against Reading in September but Marriott has no such fears for this campaign.

He added: “I feel absolutely fine, physically not a problem at all; I feel as fit as I have for a while.

"After I came back from my hamstring injury last season, I don’t think I missed a game, I had a full pre-season pretty much and I feel great and long may that continue.”

It was the link-up between the two that helped to unlock the Cheltenham defence that Posh had been struggling to penetrate in the first half. Marriott’s opened the door for Posh to take all three points from what had been a frustrating afternoon up to that point.

He said: “It was a game of two halves. We were very off it in the fist half, we weren’t getting the second balls and we didn’t have that energy but then that changed second half when we were winning everything, fighting, pushing forward and getting bodies in the box. It was more of a Peterborough United performance and shows the character in the side.

“The feeling at half time was frustration, we’d spent five/six weeks of pre-season working so hard to get to this moment only to be 2-0 down.

“It’s how you react to that though and that’s what we’re big on throughout the club. To react like that was equally pleasing for the players as the manager.

“We felt it was one way-traffic in the second half, despite a few good saves from Lucas, there was only going to be one winner.

“The feeling in the dressing room after the game was relief, a complete contrast to the first half but also know we know we can do that, so we just have to make sure those first halves don’t happen and we start like we did in the second half.”