The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Were more fresh legs needed after that heroic effort v City?
Posh - Report and reaction from Huddersfield Town 3, Peterborough United 0
Posh boss Grant McCann admitted not freshening his side up for the Friday fixture at Huddersfield could have been a mistake.
McCann rewarded all the available players who had delivered an heroic effort in an FA Cup defeat at home to Manchester City three days earlier with another start.
The boss was forced into one change as Mark Beevers replaced centre-back Frankie Kent who was sick. McCann’s plans were disrupted further when impressive on-loan goalkeeper Steven Benda fell ill during the warm-up so Dai Cornell stepped up.
Both replacements were among Posh’s better performers, but two goals in the first seven minutes from Danel Sinani and Tom Lees rocked McCann’s men and a 3-0 home win for the promotion contenders was completed with a second goal for centre-back Lees 20 minutes from time.
“Everything is great in hindsight,” McCann said. “And
maybe I needed to freshen things up a little bit. Keeping Oliver Norburn on the bench was a tough call, but I’m quite fair and if people do well, they stay in the team.”
Norburn came on after 26 minutes anyway as McCann attempted to shore up a leaky
side, but Posh rarely laid a glove on a team stretching an unbeaten run to 16 matches.
Poku came closest to scoring on 15 minutes with a 10-yard sidefoot, while Sammie Szmodics shot just over the bar after the break.
McCann added: “We reach
the top end of the pitch, but then we turn back and play it safe. Confidence is a big thing and when you’re losing games, it plays on your mind. You don’t want to take a risk, you don’t want to pass forward and you don’t want to beat somebody as you’d rather keep it
and be safe. I want to see players take a risk.”
MATCH STATS: Goals: Huddersfield - Sinani (3 mins), Lees (7 mins & 69 mins).
Caution: Posh - Norburn (foul).
Referee: Darren Bond 7.
Attendance: 16,023 (326 Posh).