Peterborough Sports | Jimmy Dean - Let's bounce back

Peterborough Sports may top the Southern League Central Premier - but boss Jimmy Dean is looking for a reaction from his players after two defeats in a week. 

Photo: Peterborough Sports FC

By Steven Oldham

Boss demands response from his players 

Sports were knocked out of the FA Cup by National League side King’s Lynn last weekend.  A 6-2 thumping by promotion rivals Coalville Town followed in midweek.

Dean now wants to use the squad’s pain following these results as fuel to get them back to winning ways. Their next game is against old foes Bromsgrove Sporting. 

“We were terrible against Coalville, they deserved to win. It’s obvious we were emotionally and physically drained. We’re not normally a team who gives up, but we did in that game. We had no answer to them. The front four were superb, I was really impressed by them. 

“We have to react now.  I have to remind them of their responsibilities and the pain we’re all feeling now. I couldn’t get the game out of my mind on Tuesday night. We’re obviously good enough to win games, but you use these feelings we have now as a catalyst for these things not to happen again. 

“We’ll treat Saturday onwards as a clean slate, while holding the last week against them. We’ll tell them that this isn’t good enough, and it’s not where we want to be but let’s start again. 

“I won’t be so kind about it if we don’t get a good reaction - you can’t expect to win any game, but you can expect a good performance.

“Bromsgrove will be licking their wounds. We’ve both lost twice in a week - it’s a case of who handles the defeats the best. They’re better than the last defeat and will want to react. We have to try to be mentally strong, which is easier said than done. It’s my job now to rebuild that momentum,” he said.

Peterborough Sports: A club on the up

Despite these setbacks, it’s still been a very strong start for The Turbines. Ten wins in twelve league games have put them in a familiar place - top of the table. 

The club has experienced a meteoric rise in the past five seasons, climbing from Step 6 to Step 3 in that time.  Three titles in four seasons have brought them to where they are today.

Dean has led the team from the depths of the United Counties League Division One to their current standing. They now rub shoulders with famous non-league sides like Hednesford Town and Nuneaton Borough. 

Not bad, considering he didn’t even want the job to start with. 

Reluctant boss grows to love the job 

The 39-year-old - himself an experienced non-league player - came in to help out former boss Chris Plummer while injured. Then playing for St Ives Town, he had previously turned out for the likes of Yaxley and local rivals Peterborough Northern Star. 

It’s a measure of how far Peterborough Sports have come that Dean is disappointed with the FA Cup exit to a side who play their football two steps higher.

“Initially, I only came in to help out. At the time I was depressed - drinking and sobbing too much. At first I couldn’t be bothered with it, but the missus kept pushing me. The chairman knew Chris was standing down - they angled the hook to make me bite and I did. I fell in love with the job. I knew we could get a couple of promotions, but after that I didn’t expect any of the success that followed.

“The expectancy level rises every season because we keep doing well and hitting the heights. The club wants another promotion, as much as I try to play that down we can’t hide it. After that it will be tough to move forward, but we thought that after the last two promotions. 

“We underestimated how good the group we had were, they’ve really taken to the higher leagues.  We still have the same core of the team, but have added four to five players over the past couple of years,” he said.