Frustration for Grant McCann as Peterborough ‘gift’ win to Hull

Posted Sunday, February 27, 2022 by PA

Grant McCann could not hide his disappointment following a losing return to the Peterborough hot seat at the hands of his previous club Hull.

The Northern Irishman’s second spell as Posh boss began with a drop to the bottom of the Championship table following a comprehensive defeat to a side he had steered away from relegation trouble before being sacked last month.

McCann admitted: “My time at Hull has gone now and my only focus now is on Peterborough United.

“I’m really pleased to be back but it was a really frustrating and disappointing result.

“We only really had a day on the training ground before a game to work with the players, but that’s not an excuse.

“We gifted them all three goals, to be totally honest, by losing the ball. These are things we have to learn from.

“There’s a losing mentality around the place at the minute and we need to create some positivity which will take a bit of time.

“It’s my job – and some of the older players’ jobs – to carry the burden and make sure our young players are not feeling the heat and perform with confidence.

“I’m learning about the group and the staff every day and hopefully we can start taking things forward.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t do ourselves any sort of justice with that performance. We didn’t give the fans much to shout about but we will do in time.”

Tyler Smith’s first Championship goal of the season set Hull on the way to victory in the 25th minute as he tucked away a Brandon Fleming cross.

Leading scorer Keane Lewis-Potter then took centre stage in the second period with a classy brace to seal City’s success as they snapped a run of six matches without victory.

He fired in his eighth goal of the campaign with a 20-yard blast six minutes after the restart and then struck again when slotting through the legs of keeper Steven Benda with 20 minutes to go.

Posh, who remain eight points from safety, offered little as they slumped to the basement with Sammie Szmodics managing their only shot on target and Callum Morton seeing a second-half penalty appeal ignored.

It was a second success in English football for McCann’s successor at Hull, Shota Arveladze, who said: “The boys gave an absolutely fantastic reaction to the last game. It was a massive, massive three points.

“We had control offensively and defensively, we created good chances and scored fantastic goals, and we definitely deserved to win the game.

“We had two days to organise things better after losing to Barnsley on Tuesday. We wanted to get the ball down, get the players into the right positions and play our own game. We did those things.

“Tyler has always trained hard when he has been out of the squad and worked for his chance. It was a massive goal he scored for us in a tough time after the run we’ve had. It gave him and all of us a lot of good feelings.

“Keane showed today how good he is. They were two different goals. He moved in so quick for the first one and then ran 40-50 yards for the second one and finished it.

“I believe for all of our supporters we showed today that we can make them happy.”