Posh U21s fall to first defeat in pre-season.
Peterborough United U21s suffered their first defeat of pre-season after a 2-0 loss to Isthmian League Premier Division side Wingate and Finchley at The Maurice Rebak Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Ryan Semple named a young side with a number of under 21s players involved in the two first-team games across the weekend. A number of under 18s were included in the squad, with two first-year scholars in the starting eleven.
Posh fell behind on 35 minutes as an effort from the edge of the box was deflected and, from the resulting corner, the ball was fired home on the half-volley after the corner wasn’t cleared properly.
The Blues doubled their lead on just after the hour mark and it was once again from a corner as a header at the front-post was flicked over Jake West and into the back of the net to secure the win for the hosts.
U21s Lead Professional Development Phase coach Ryan Semple took positives from a young under 21s performance, but felt his side wasn’t clinical enough with opportunities inside the opposition box.
Semple said: “I thought the performance was good at times. We controlled large parts of the game against a difficult, physical side who were aggressive and played some nice football. The result of the game was decided in both boxes, we had a lot of half chances and just didn’t have the final end product, whether they defended well or we just made the wrong pass. The two goals we conceded were from corners, so we needed to defend those two moments better and that was ultimately the deciding factor of the game.
“However, there were positives from the performance and we were a young side as we had players going up with the first team. It was great to get plenty of minutes, especially for the players that needed them, but it has been a difficult few days against two physical sides and they would have felt that towards the end of the game. There were plenty of positives to take from the game and just disappointed to not defend the two goals better.”
Posh XI: West, Bodnar, Dornelly, Thomas, Powell, Unwin, Chiha, Kelmendi, Winters, Changunda, Overton.
Subs: Toynton, Mills, Gilbert, Odei-Larbi, Marshall.