Winger Lewis Webb was forced to play 80 minutes as an emergency goalkeeper as the Peterborough United youth team were defeated 2-0 by Gillingham on Saturday morning in the PUMA Youth Alliance League.

Posh lost the services of regular goalkeeper Courtney Howard after just five minutes and with no substitute shot-stopper on the bench, Webb volunteered for the challenge and performed well between the sticks.

He was only beaten twice and made one or two notable stops as Posh restricted their opponents to just a handful of chances. It was only the second defeat in the last nine games for the youngsters.

Posh centre back Josh Jirabandy told theposh.com: 'The day started off badly with us losing Courtney so early in the game. It meant that Lewis had to go in goal and I think if Courtney had stayed fit, we may not have conceded the two goals. We conceded the first goal on 10 minutes, they took a quick free-kick and progressed down the right hand side, the guy hit a shot and it went past Webb's hand and into the back of the net.

'We didn't keep the ball as much as we should have done for the remainder of the first half and didn't create too many opportunities. We didn't start the second half particularly well and Gillingham scored with pretty much their only shot, which was disappointing because we had kept them at bay pretty well. We had a few half-chances, but nothing major. It was disappointing to lose, but obviously the circumstances meant it was always going to be difficult,' Jirabandy said.

Posh: Howard, Reed, Andrew, Jirabandy, trialist (x2), Crook, Pennals, Kouassi, Araba, Ginty. Subs used: Abraham, Lyons, Webb.