Peterborough chairman slams 'disgraceful' Posh performance in defeat to Cobblers
Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony slammed Posh’s ‘disgraceful’ performance in their 4-0 defeat to rivals Northampton, and claimed Cobblers were ‘lucky’ to win the reverse fixture at Sixfields.
Speaking on his Hard Truth podcast, MacAnthony was furious with how Northampton ‘ran all over’ Peterborough as a first half brace from Sam Hoskins was added to by Dara Costelloe and Tom Eaves. That completed Town’s first double over their rivals since 1986/87 having won the reverse fixture 2-1 at Sixfields in December.
MacAnthony said: "Our performance in the Northampton game was disgraceful. It really wound me up and it really wound the manager up. I’ve not criticised the players much this season, but I can’t accept players not running the hard yards against a local rival.
"With all due respect Northampton shouldn’t be coming to our place and slapping us. We show up like that, at our place in front of our own fans? That didn’t sit well with me at all. No way Northampton should be running all over us and winning 4-0. They should be hanging on like they were at their place before they scored a lucky, late winner. They have now done the double over us and that hasn’t happened in my time at the club.
"Fair play to them because the new manager has got them going. They ran around and did the basics well. If we can’t run and compete in a game of that magnitude, one which means so much to our fans, than I am questioning who you are and whether or not we want you.
"It all happened at a time when we are planning for next season and making lists, and I can tell you a couple swapped lists after watching that game. It was a s*** moment in a s***** season, but I thought we had got past all that.
"Of course the red card didn’t help. It exacerbated the situation. Tayo (Edun) lost his head and picked up his second red card in a few games. I’ve always said I can accept mistakes, but don’t then make the same mistake twice. We need to be able to trust players. I can’t defends ridiculous red cards, I can’t defend some of the petulance I’ve seen recently. We need to weed that sort of stuff out and we will.
“We love Tayo and there’s a great player there who we can help develop, but imagine if something like that happened in a play-off game? It would be season over because of a moment of madness. I’m sure Tayo can change and I’m sure we can help, but the penny needs to drop. At some stage you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself what sort of player you want to be.”