Those with 'football intelligence' would know the value of Ricky-Jade Jones to Peterborough United

The 21 year-old speedy striker was a surprise starter as Posh thumped Northampton Town 5-1 in a one-sided League One encounter at the Weston Homes Stadium on Tuesday night.

He didn’t score, but his relentless pressing and workrate made him MacAnthony’s man-of-the-match. The chairman reckons Posh wouldn’t have scored five without Jones and that the other gifted forwards in League One’s top scoring side owed him a debt of gratitude.

Wingers Ephron Mason-Clark and Kwame Poku, number 10 Joel Randall, central midfielder Hector Kyprianou and centre-back Josh Knight scored the goals against Cobblers as Posh completed third straight League One win.

Jones had been a doubt for the game with a hamstring issue.

"Ricky starting was key to our performance,” MacAnthony said on his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast. “You will not find a better pressing centre forward in the EFL than Ricky. There’s too much chat about what Ricky can’t do, rather than what he can do, but those with football intelligence know.

"We have the best wingers in the league and Joel Randall playing well to make up an effective triangle, but they have the space to operate because of the unselfish running of their number nine. Our wingers could end up getting 15 goals apiece this season and Ricky has played a big part in that. Everyone around Ricky is doing well and they him plenty of gratitude. He was my man of the match last night and if he hadn’t played we wouldn’t have scored five.

"Ask the Northampton back four and goalkeeper what they thought about Ricky. He terrified them. As good as our centre-backs are I doubt they would relish Ricky running after them.

"We will probably see the best of Ricky when he goes to a better club and when he does he will be hard to replace. We do lists of replacements for our current squad and replacing Ricky is the one conundrum we haven’t solved. Malik Mothersille is going to be a top player for us, but he can’t press like Ricky. He might be able to one day and he will better after a full pre-season with us

"The majority of our fans are right behind Ricky, but if they could all get behind him like they got behind Joel Randall he would get a similar lift.

"It was a great performance all-round against Northampton. Conceding a poor goal didn’t deter us. We looked in the mood, we looked fresh, we looked quick and we had an appetite for the game.”