Some good judges are starting to pay attention to the skills of Peterborough United central defender Tom O'Connor
Centre-back Tom O’Connor hasn’t received the attention of some late transfer window recruits at Peterborough United.
Indeed the 26 year-old was pretty much operating smoothly under the radar as the likes of Matthew Garbett and JJ Morgan made goal-scoring contributions in their early appearances for Posh.
But Posh boss Darren Ferguson made a point of saying how impressed he had been with O’Connor even before the club’s first clean sheet of the season arrived at Plymouth Argyle last weekend.
It’s an opinion now shared by many – he received a rare 9/10 rating from the PT for his Home Park performance – after a stylish, composed and rugged display.
Posh signed O’Connor and Jacob Mendy on season-long loans from Championship club Wrexham, a team who have been playing with three centre-backs and two wing-backs for several seasons, a formation now adopted by Ferguson with the team winning their last two games at home to Wycombe Wanderers and at Plymouth.
O’Connor told the Posh Plus service: “I played this formation quite a lot with Wrexham, often with Jacob Mendy, which has obviously helped. Tom Lees and George Nevett have been very good in it.
"In my first game at Huddersfield I felt we played really well and we were unfortunate not to get something from the game. And I’ve been impressed in the 2 games since with the team and the way we play. The gaffer has a way of playing and I’ve really enjoyed it so far.
"We didn’t deliver the quality we wanted at Plymouth, but we dug in to get a great result and confidence is now high ahead of a really tough game against Lincoln who have had a good start to the season.
"For me it was just about getting through those first few games. I hadn’t played back-to-back 90 minutes for a while, but my body already feels better for getting through them.”