Injury-hit Posh suffer narrow loss to Stevenage in Youth Alliance League.

The Peterborough United under 18s slipped to a narrow 2-1 defeat to Stevenage in the second Youth Alliance League fixture of the campaign at the weekend as Matthew Etherington’s injury-hit squad followed last weeks’ battling 0-0 draw against Northampton with a frustrating 90 minutes.

Missing several regulars due to a combination of injury and suspension (as well as first team squad call-ups), Posh were 2-0 down before a deflected effort from Shaun Keane set up a grandstand finish.

Posh carved out opportunities in front of goal with Theo Lukyamuzi missing a good chance to score and several others going close. Lukyamuzi picked up an injury in the first half and was forced off after just half an hour of the contest and adds to the players in the treatment room with Connor Peters and Kellan Hickinson among those unavailable.

“We are a little stretched at the minute. We have injuries to several players who would be in the squad and we were missing Nicky Gyimah due to suspension. Despite a good pre-season, we have struggled in the first couple of weeks in terms of the league games, mainly in possession, which has thrown us a little bit.

“We were so good in possession during pre-season and that can happen sometimes. We need to pick it up quickly because it is not the start we wanted, even though there have been reasons for it. We stayed in the game for as a long as we could and we had chances to score, but if I am being honest, Stevenage looked the better side on the day.

“Luton are next up on Saturday, they have won their opening two games of the season and are looking to go up to Category 2 next season so that will be another tough test for us. We will be looking for an improvement,” Etherington said.

Posh: Blackmore, Mensah, Bodie, Thomas, Tonge, O’Connell, Keane, Harris, Chiha, Darlington, Lukyamuzi.