Stand-in skipper salutes the 'outstanding' Peterborough United fans after last-day defeat
Peterborough United’s skipper-for-the-day Carl Johnston praised the club’s ‘outstanding’ fans after the final game 2-1 defeat at Rotherham United on Saturday.
Johnston wore the skipper’s armband for the first time as Posh finished the League One season on a run of seven games without a win. Abraham Odoh fired Posh in front in 35 seconds, but the hosts hit back to win.
That didn’t stop over 12,000 Posh fans staying behind after the final whistle to applaud the playing squad and management staff. There were particularly warm receptions for departing stars Kwame Poku, Hector Kyprianou and Ricky-Jade Jones even though only the latter made a farewell playing appearance.
"Football is nothing without fans,” Johnston said. “And ours have been absolutely outstanding. Even after a defeat they gave us a great send-off and the players really appreciated that. They pay their hard-earned money to watch us all around the country every week and their support will be massive again for us next season.
"The very least they deserve is to see 100 per cent effort in every game and at times we could have done more to keep the ball out of our net. Sometimes you have to be prepared to hurt yourself to stop a goal, whether you are 5ft 5 or 6ft 5 and if we’d shown a bit more of that we’d have been higher up the table as we all know the skills we have going forward.
"it was an absolute pleasure to captain the lads today and I thank the gaffer for trusting me to lead the side out. It was disappointing to lose because we wanted to take a win into next season. We had a great start and we could have gone a couple of goals up before they started to get into the game.
"It’s a disappointing result, but I’m already looking forward to a fresh start next season.”