The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
‘We can cope with big-game pressure’
Peterborough Sports jointboss Michael Gash has no doubt his players will relish the pressure of a relegation battle in National League North.
Sports secured a first win in six games against Bradford Park Avenue at the Bee Arena last weekend.
But the gap between Sports and the relegation zone has narrowed ahead of two tough away games for the city side. They face in-form sides Spennymoor and Chester on Saturday and Tuesday respectively.
The three points against Bradford only maintained a gap of seven points to the bottom four, but 22 of the 24 teams in the division played again on Tuesday and Sports’ advantage over those in most peril is now six points.
Sports should have hosted Scarborough Athletic on Tuesday, but they had County Cup commitments.
"It was a shame we didn’t play on Tuesday,” Gash stated. “We had given ourselves confidence and momentum by winning on Saturday.
"The lads responded well to the pressure of a big game.
"We sat them down before the match and hammered home the fact it was a mustwin
game.
"And fair play to the lads who played with spirit and commitment.
“The back four were excellent against a very powerful centre forward.
"We got our goal early and didn’t really look like conceding in a very scrappy game on
a very difficult playing surface.
“We will now take positive thoughts into this Saturday. We will travel up there on Friday night and be ready to play.
"It’s a tough game followed by an even tougher one, but we had decent results against
both sides at our place.”
Sports drew 1-1 with Spennymoor after beating Chester 3-2, one of only five defeats the former Football League club have suffered all season.
Veteran Gash is expected to lead the forward line again on Saturday as fellow striker Mark Jones continues his battle against a calf injury.
“It looks we’ll be relying on a 36 year-old striker again this weekend,” Gash quipped. “It was disappointing we didn’t get further away from the bottom four, but noone ever said this league was going to be easy.”