Darragh has the utmost faith in his manager McCann

Darragh MacAnthony was gloved up for a fight . . . but the opposition failed to show.

After strong criticism on social media following the loss at home to Bradford City, the Posh chairman invited the whingers and moaners to meet him face to face at last week’s fans forum to discuss their grievances.

Predictably they failed to show. Instead 50diehard supporters turned up - more for a chat than a row with their beloved leader.

What followed was a warm, good-humoured discussion that went on for an hour and a half.

Yet three times MacAnthony went off at a tangent to defend criticism he received for appointing Grant McCann.

The fans never mentioned the manager in their questions but that didn’t stop MacAnthony ramming home loud and clear that he had the utmost faith in ‘the gaffer’.

“People say I took the cheap option - well nothing is cheap about me,” he said. “Grant McCann is not the cheap option - he’s the right option.

“McCann is a born winner. He wants to improve everything and learn everything. He’s really embracing his individual career and I have alot of faith in him.

“Whatever has gone on in mylife, I’m good at recruiting. I turned down a very, very top manager to get Grant. I feel very confident but I’ m not getting excited until May .”

MacAnthony also spoke at length about the club’s policy of selling the best players.

He reiterated what he said in his pre-season message to the fans, that a club like Posh with average gates of 5,000 need to sell top players to survive.

“Players join us because of our policy ,” he insisted .“That’ s why Tom Nichols chose us ahead of clubs playing at a higher level. Chettle and Nichols came in on the back of Conor Washington being sold.”

And he defended the de- cision to sell Washington to QPR.

“Every manager told me Conor Washington was rubbish, so to get £2.8 million for him - how does that make me the bad guy?

“The reason we didn’t get promoted last season was nothing to do with selling Conor Washington. It wasn’t even in the top four.”

Another issue to get an airing was the closure of the London Road end for a recent game.

MacAnthony said closing certain sections of the ground was purely down to cost.

“We are running a business and there’s no point in paying to man an empty stand,” he said.

“But in hindsight closing the London Road end was perhaps not a good idea. The players hated it and it won’t happen again.” Questions raised that received much shorter replies from the nine-strong top table:

Can we make the print on the fixture cards bigger next season?

Why are the replica shirts smaller this season? Who don’ t we have automated turnstiles? Can we have players names on the front of their shirts as well as the back? How can we get more Eastern Europeans to watch Posh? Does the grounds man know his sprinker’s not working?

Darragh MacAnthony.