Gannon - Posh are down

Gannon: Uphill struggle

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Manager Jim Gannon believes Peterborough are practically relegated after going down 1-0 to Coventry.

On-loan Ipswich striker Jon Stead scored the only goal of the game for the Sky Blues, who are hoping to mount a late push for the Championship play-offs.

But while Chris Coleman's side are three points outside the top six and remain in a battle for promotion, Gannon has written off Posh's chances of playing in the second tier next season as they were left 13 points adrift of safety, having won just five games all season.

He said: "We have to put ourselves out of our misery and accept that we are going down.

"We would need to get three times as many wins as the club has managed all season to even stand a chance of staying up. We don't have the depth of quality and we have to be realistic in that we are down.

"We haven't shown the technical quality required to hit the target and challenge to win games and that was the case again.

"We had 11 shots - all on target - in our previous home game against Ipswich but that unfortunately proved to be a false dawn."

Praise

Coleman saluted Stead for his goal, but reserved much of his praise for a miserly City defence after his side's fifth win in six games - and the fourth by a 1-0 scoreline.

Stead powered free of the attentions of Wales international defender Craig Morgan to notch his second goal since joining on loan from Ipswich.

Coleman said: "Jon showed great determination to get in there and then displayed great calmness to take the chance.

"There was no chance of us taking Peterborough lightly because they are bottom of the league. They have a new manager who players are keen to impress and we were never going to get it easy.

"We got the battle we expected, but, that said, I can't remember us being under too much pressure or our keeper having to make too many saves.

"We have been making a habit of keeping clean sheets lately and a lot of praise for that must go to the defence."