TURBINES ARE BEGINNING TO CHURN FASTER
PROGRESS in the FA Trophy means one simple thing for Peterborough Sports and their manager Jimmy Dean – just playing football!
With league matches suspended since October, the Pitching In Southern League Premier Central club have only had Trophy ties to look forward to.
The ‘non-elite’ side have been granted ‘elite’ status to continue playing in the competition and they’ve made full use of the special dispensation.
The Turbines are into the fifth round for the first time in their history after winning 1-0 at National League South club Bath City last weekend.
It was their fifth victory during this run which began on October 31 at Gainsborough Trinity, just before the nation’s second lockdown which has halted league fixtures ever since.
“The Trophy wasn’t a priority,” admitted Dean. “We had Needham Market on the Saturday, who were top, but when we found out the country was going to shut down we decided to go for it against Gainsborough. Now we’re in the last 16 which is pretty mental for a little club like us.
“Every one is a cup final, every one is the last game we could play for three, four, five months.”
AFC Rushden & Diamonds, Hitchin Town and Basford United have all fallen to the Turbines since then before their big victory at Bath.
“Pretty much everything went as we thought it would and as we wanted it to,” Dean told The NLP of their historic win. “We knew they were a possession-based team, they’re the type of team if you give them too much time on the ball they hurt you.
“To keep my players in a way we would keep pressure on the ball was the big thing. We knew they are a pretty young side, more technically based than physically based.
“We had three weeks knowing we were going to
play them so we knew them inside out. Then it just came to whether we could condition the players in nine days.”
Milestone
Dean put them through three sessions of in-house games to raise their match fitness levels after three weeks off over Christmas and
New Year.
“From doing nothing to going into three games in five days is mental but how
else do you get match fit?” he said. “We had three games in December and they did their individual bits too so we knew we weren’t miles away. “It was one of the most one-sided 1-0s you’ll ever see but they had a red card on 60 minutes and if they didn’t then I think it would have been a different last 30 minutes because we did tire. “Credit to the players to turn up like that after four weeks of not playing. I’m really proud to be associated with them.”
Dean still rates their victory at Boston United in the FA Cup, as a Step 4 club in 2018, as their
best ever, but Bath comes a close second.
Nonetheless, it’s another milestone for Dean, who has lifted them from Step 6 with three titles in four seasons – and they were on course for another last term when the campaign was ended.
Now, they head to Oxford City hoping to just have the chance of playing one more game.
“It’s a really tough draw,” he added. “Their manager (David Oldfield) is highly respected, he’s renowned for having his teams fit and organised. They don’t have many off days.
“They’re going to be playing games, the odds are stacked against us but what can you do? It’s a game of football.”