REACTION: Accrington manager heaps praise on ‘fantastic’ Posh: ‘It’s just a shame there were no Premier League or Championship matches to help us bury the result!’

Sammie Szmodics makes it 3-0 for Posh against Accrington Stanley. Photo: David Lowndes.

It was an afternoon to forget for the vistors who were without a host of first-team players and who suffered four injuries in 90 minutes this afternoon. Accrington played the final 15 minutes of the match with 10 men.

But instead of bemoaning his side’s luck, Coleman insisted on congratulating a Posh team who had won just one of their previous six League One matches.

“They have good players who can put the ball in the back of the net,” Coleman admitted. “And they were without one of their better attacking players in (Siriki) Dembele.

Mo Eisa is on his way to making it 6-0 for Posh against Accrington. Photo: David Lowndes.

“You get days like this when everything goes for you. We stuck seven past Bolton last season.

“But all you can do is take your hat off to the opposition and praise their performance. They were fantastic in front of goal. The economy of effort was brilliant. Our goalkeeper only made a couple of saves and yet we’ve let seven in. That’s how clinical they were and all credit to them for that.

“They did have all their birthdays come at once as we gifted them the first two goals in the first 10 minutes. It’s just a shame no Premier League or Championship games which would enable us to bury this result!

“We do have problems. In fact in 25 years as a manager I have never known an injury list like it and then we lost four players to injury in this game. We haven’t had a lot of luck this season, but all you can do is send a team out and ask them to do their best.

“It wasn’t easy playing for 20 minutes with 10 men against a team who were rampant and looking like scoring every time they went forward, but my lads didn’t give in. They kept running, but it’s just Peterborough were miles better than us on the day. We shouldn’t let our problems detract from how well Peterborough played and how much effort my lads put into the match.

“I lost here as a manager 8-2 once and we went on to win the next game 2-0 with the same team.”

Accrington dropped to 13th in League One, but they are just four points off the play-off places.