Spirited Youngsters Narrowly Beaten
Young Posh side beaten by experienced Stoke City side on Monday evening.
An XI including two under 16s put in a spirited performance against a strong Stoke City side on Monday night in the opening fixture of the Premier League Cup with Peterborough United suffering a narrow 3-2 defeat at the home of Leek Town.
Posh fielded 10 under 18s in the starting line-up, most of which had featured 48 hours earlier in the Youth Alliance League defeat to local rivals Northampton Town, but battled superbly against a Potters side that included players with Premier League and Bundesliga experience.
Mathew Stevens netted twice for Posh including an excellent long-range effort as he continued his excellent development, which is being nurtured by Slough Town, where he is currently playing his Saturday football.
Academy manager Nick Sheppard was proud of his players for the performance, attitude and application of his young guns. "I think the players deserve a lot of credit. They had a really tough game on Saturday at Northampton so to put in a performance like they did on Monday night, just 48 hours later against a really strong Stoke side containing players who have performed in the Premier League, in the top German league and have experience of the EFL, is testament to the group that we have.
"It was a great effort from the lads and I am very proud of each and every one of them. The staff set them up (Mathew, Sam, James and Ev) extremely well and to be honest, when you analyse the 90 minutes of football, they didn't really cause us that many problems. One of the goals they scored came from the penalty spot and nobody in the ground felt it was a spot-kick and towards the end, they had to defend and run the clock down when they had possession to ensure they got the points.
"Mathew Stevens was excellent throughout. His attitude, application and ability shone through. He took his two goals very well, particularly his second, it was from a long way out and that was down to his positional sense to anticipate a wayward pass and to then have the confidence to finish in the manner that he did was superb."
Goalkeeper Will Blackmore did produce one superb stop during the 90 minutes, but it was Tyrese Campbell who did the damage for Stoke, scoring a hat-trick (two penalties).
Posh: Blackmore, Horne, Burrows (sub Rolt 25min), Fosu, Douglas, Clarke (sub Jade-Jones 60min, Strachan, Gurney, Jones, Stevens, Shackleton (sub Brooks 75min).