Why Steve Evans wanted Ricky-Jade Jones to remove Matthew Etherington from Peterborough United's record books

Current Stevenage boss ​Evans managed Posh in the second-half of the 2017-18 season and ahead of the final League One game – a dead rubber at Portsmouth – it was felt prudent to leave top scorer Jack Marriott out of the matchday squad to protect an impending move to Derby County.

“I wanted to play Ricky in his place,” Evans revealed. “He’d been impressive when training with the first team even though he was only 15, but the Football League decided he was just too young and it never happened.

"I’m delighted for the boy to see how well he’s progressed since though.”

If Jones had played at Fratton Park he would have been three months younger than Matthew Etherington who is the youngest player in Posh history. He was allowed to play as a 15 year-old in the final game of the 1996-97 Division Two season at Brentford.

Jones went on to make his Posh first-team debut as a 17 year-old in an EFL Trophy match against Arsenal Under 21s in October, 2019.

Posh travel to Stevenage for a big game on Tuesday (November 28, 7.45pm). Stevenage are currently fifth, one place ahead of Posh.

Posh have sold out their allocation of just under 1,400 tickets for te fixture.