Peterborough's United's new interim boss Ryan Harley pays tribute to Luke Williams and names why he thinks Posh have fallen short during his reign

Harley, who has been assistant to Williams at Notts County, Swansea and Posh, as well as working alongside him at Milton Keynes, has been placed in temporary charge of the club and is set to be the man in the dugout for Tuesday’s EFL Trophy tie against Colchester.

The final straw for Darragh MacAnthony was the defeat to previously bottom of the table and winless Doncaster Rovers; secured by goals from Alfie May and Isaac Hutchinson.

In his interview, Harley covered several topics, including paying tribute to Williams, his thoughts on the current squad and Saturday’s game itself.

Luke Williams

The situation is very difficult. Luke has been our leader for close to a year and has brilliant staff and a brilliant group of players.

When these circumstances happen we have to ask two things. Can the staff do more and can the players do more? Yes, it’s both.

He’s a brilliant manager and head coach. I’ve never seen anyone coach like him and I’ve seen a lot of coaches.

It’s a strange feeling, he’s someone that comes to work at 8am everyday and leaves at gone 6pm most days. He puts a lot into it and gives the players everything he has got. He’s been the same at every club. He’s married to the job; he’s got two kids back at home who he adores but he sees them very little because it’s his job to be here.

As we all know, it’s not worked for loads of different reasons. I get it but its difficult.

The feeling I was picking up in the dressing room, after they heard the news, was that most were upset and gutted. It wasn’t nice for us or the players.

Where it went wrong

“Last season, the attitude in the squad wasn’t what we wanted. We had some players on loan, some people knew they were going and some people were not the characters we wanted. The group is in a better place culture wise and with the characters but we have to start putting the foot down and get what we deserve. They train brilliant and behave brilliant. They just need that on the pitch.

“It’s a game of small margins, at Blackpool we should be two or three up and they score two goals from nothing; mistakes that shouldn’t happen. Then the game’s completely different. We had the flow, we gave them two goals out of nothing and its over. We should have won against Sheffield Wednesday, we didn’t play brilliant against Stevenage but we played well enough to win the game.

We’ve just been a bit short in some games and with margins which could have gone the other way.

The defeat to Doncaster

“Today, they just showed a few signs that they were emotional and anxious in the game.

“We played well in spells at the start of both halves but didn’t quite put our foot on the throttle and create enough, which has been the problem recently.

“When we have the flow of the game, even when we’re not creating, what we can’t do is give the game to them and let them have anything. It’s a waste of 20 minutes, we just got a bit emotional. Of course we have young players that are not accustomed to being out there much and when the feeling drops, they follow it. They have to grow up really quickly because the supporters feeds into it. We looked a bit sorry for ourselves at times.

“A few players were slightly in the wrong position for the first one and that’s the difference. The second one, they just squirmed around David on the outside of the pitch. If you’re having a good performance, he probably doesn’t make that mistake when they get round him. He’s joined in with the emotion and taken himself out of the game.

“We could have got back into it at 1-1 without performing top but then you finish up at 2-0 and the feeling is very low. “

Posh host Colchester in their first EFL Trophy group match on Tuesday night (September 22, 7pm). They currently sit 15th in League Two.