Double blow for Posh

No Bennett or Sears for Peterborough

By Chris Galea   Last updated: 18th June 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Double blow for Posh

Fry: Two failed bids

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Peterborough United have suffered a double transfer blow after they failed with their bids for Ryan Bennett and Freddie Sears, skysports.com understands.

Sears is available on loan from West Ham and Peterborough were hopeful of securing his signature.

However, director of football Barry Fry has confirmed that Sears is on his way to Crystal Palace.

"Freddie came down to the club and was impressed with the training ground and setup here," Fry told skysports.com.

"But then the goalposts were changed slightly when Sheffield Wednesday came in.

"However, he is now set to shun both of us and is signing for Crystal Palace."

Fry also revealed that the club's second bid for Grimsby stopper Bennett has been rejected and they will now be looking elsewhere for defensive reinforcements.

"We made a second bid for Bennett and it has been turned down by Grimsby, so we will not be pursuing the matter and will be going elsewhere in our search for a centre-half," he said.

More bids

He did confirm a bid had been lodged with another club, but it was not for Dagenham & Redbridge defender Magnus Okuonghae.

"No, we aren't in the hunt for the lad, but we are in talks with an unnamed club for a certain centre-half and it's not him," he said.

Meanwhile, Fry admitted the club were disappointed to miss out on a home game to start their Championship campaign.

Instead they will kick-off at Derby County.

"We were disappointed not to get a home fixture on the opening day of the season because I felt we might have got a sell-out, especially with the Premier League not starting till the week after, but it wasn't to be," he said.

"However, there will be 30,000 plus when we go to Derby and it will be a magnificent start to the season for both our players and fans."