Forest on fire as Posh crash out
Second relegation agony for McCann
GRANT McCANN is out to inspire another immediate Championship return after Peterborough succumbed to relegation on what the manager called a ‘sad day’.
This was one of those surreal footballing occasions where Peterborough could be sent down with a win and Forest were able to seal a play-off spot even if beaten.
As it turned out, neither of those scenarios became reality with Forest taking victory and keeping their dream of promotion to the Premier League alive.
Sam Surridge headed the only goal on the stroke of half-time from Brennan Johnson’s cross, capping a terrific counter-attack started by Philip Zinckernagel.
The home side saw good chances go begging in both halves, as RickyJade Jones and Harrison Burrows were denied by keeper Brice Samba as their stay in the second tier ended after just one season.
McCann, who returned for a second spell after Darren Ferguson quit in February, was in charge of Hull City when they tumbled out of the Championship in
2020. However, he then masterminded a League One title for them the following campaign. And he is already setting his sights on turning disappointment to delight in similarly spectacular fashion at Peterborough next term.
McCann said: ‘It’s a sad day for everyone connected to the club. People work tirelessly behind the scenes and fans pay their hardearned money every week, home and away, but we just haven’t been able to deliver. ‘I can’t thank the players enough for the attitude, effort and determination they have put into the 12 games since I’ve been here. A lot of the players won’t have been in this position before and felt this sort of pain.
They have to feel it and use it to their advantage to ensure the comeback is stronger than the failure.
‘We all want to be a sustainable Championship club, but now we have to focus on getting back into this league. I’ve had this experience before at Hull not so long ago. We dusted ourselves down to bounce straight back and hopefully we can do that here too.
‘People think League One is easy. It’s not. It’s a really tough league full of massive clubs, but I think we can have a really successful season.’
Forest boss Steve Cooper refused to take a play-off spot for granted, despite his side needing only one
more point from four remaining games to seal the deal.
Cooper said: ‘We weren’t at our purest by any means, but we showed enough quality to get the job done. We stood up to everything Peterborough threw at us really well, we stuck to our way of playing and scored a brilliant goal.
‘We had somewhere around 3,700 fans here and it sounded like 37,000 at times with the noise they make. They played a massive part in getting us over the line.
‘Fair play to Peterborough, they have some good young players and really put up a good fight. We’ll be happy to get back on the bus with the win. I’ve got a lot of respect for Grant and he knows that as we spoke even before he came here.
‘We still have work to do and need to get down to Fulham for the next game in the best shape possible. They’re obviously the best team in the league and they deserve to be promoted. But we want to play the best to see where we’re at.’