City of Peterborough follow a first defeat of the season with a top-of-the-table clash

And it arrived last Sunday as City lost their unbeaten National Midlands Conference record at Bedford Town.

If finished 2-0 to the hosts who scored a pair of third quarter goals before easing through the rest of the game.

It was far from ideal preparation for a tussle with league leaders Harborne at Bretton Gate on Saturday (4.30pm), although the Birmingham-based team also lost for the first time last weekend.

“We were poor,” admitted Andrew. “And a bad result had been coming. We got away with it when winning at Harleston two weeks ago and we got away with when drawing with with Norwich in our last game.

"We actually dominated the early part of the game at Bedford without creating much, but we tailed off in the second half.

"It was a very disappointing display and we’ll obviously need to be a lot better this Saturday.”

Andrew will hope to have some senior players back as Neil Evans, Alex Boxall, Dave Fisher and Nathan Foad all missed the trip to Bedford.

"We went from having a 17-man squad to having a 14-man squad virtually overnight,” Andrews added. “Young Ollie Senior made his debut though which was the highlight of the day.”

City of Peterborough Ladies 4ths suffered a first defeat of the East Division Four season, 4-0 at home to Haverhill firsts.