Sports overcome all the odds to deliver a memorable victory

Peterborough Sports overcame a huge unavailability crisis to record one of their most memorable wins of their meteoric rise up the rankings at Tamworth on Tuesday.

Sports boss Jimmy Dean had to beg, steal and borrow just to get 13 players to the Southern Central Premier Division fixture. They called off their scheduled trip to play-off rivals Rushall Olympic last Saturday because of a shortage of players.

Posh lent Sports gifted midfielder Kobe Chong, while Yaxley allowed their former Sports player Dan Bucciero to take part.

Others played out of position - most notably centreforward Michael Gash who performed superbly as a centre-back - and reserve goalkeeper Lewis Elsom who came on as a substitute on the right wing!

And yet Sports won 2-0 thanks to a great goal from midfielder Josh McCammon and a tidy finish from full-back Luke Warner-Eley.

Both goals arrived in the second-half as Sports moved to within a point of secondplaced Coalville with a game in hand.

“You don’t get many nights like this one,” Dean remarked. “I haven’t experienced this many problems in a squad since the days we were bottom of a step 4 table.

“I haven’t been messing about with the number of players we’ve had missing. They’ve all been genuine absentees.

“We’ve had injury problems for a while now, but we’ve usually managed to get a competitive side out. Tuesday was extreme though and fair play to my lads for winning in those circumstances.

“It is one of our best results purely because of the problems. It showed me we are going to right up for the challenge for the rest of the season.

“I have one player Maniche Sani who has an ACL injury, one of the worst you can get in football, which requires an operation and yet he’s still playing!

“We started the game really well, but faded towards the end of the first-half. I made my concerns known at half-time, but the players really answered me with an outstanding second-half performance .

“The first goal was exceptional. Josh McCammon picked the ball up in midfield, played a 1-2 with Dion SembieFerris and charged to the edge of the area before scoring.

“We were really comfortable after that against a side who had enjoyed a great result at the weekend. Gashy was outstanding at the back.”

Isaiah Bazeley, Richard Jones, Ryan Fryatt, Lewis Hilliard, Jim Stevenson, Dan Jarvis, Marcus Kelly and Jordan Nicholson were all missing at Tamworth and only centre-back Jones has a chance of returning at Barwell on Saturday.

But Sembie-Ferris could miss that game now after coming off injured at Tamworth.

Chong is on loan from Posh for 28 days.

“Kobe did okay,” Dean added. “And we are grateful to Posh for helping us out. He will get better and stronger.

“Barwell beat Coalville recently so it’s another tough game for us. If you catch them on a good day they are very dangerous.”

Sports boss Jimmy Dean: ‘It showed me we are right up for the challenge for the rest of the season’

Kobe Chong in action for Posh.