Simpson: “No Desire.”

County boss Paul Simpson lamented a ‘lack of belief and desire’ as County crashed out of the FA Cup with a 4-1 defeat at Peterborough on Tuesday night.

The Posh were 3-0 up by the time Greg Tansey struck from 20 yards out, and County went on to create a hatful more of opportunities before Aaron McLean sealed the home side’s comfortable route into the FA Cup second round and a trip to Bury, who County saw off 1-0 on Saturday.

And Simpson says his men ‘believed they had no chance of winning’ despite proving themselves capable of creating chances against better opposition.

“I don’t think we believed we could get anything out of the game even though we showed in the first half that we were quite capable of creating scoring chances.”

“We never really had the desire to go and throw ourselves at things either and that has to be a disappointment. But we came up against a team who possess two forwards capable of causing chaos and tearing defences apart at the next level up, let alone against us.”

And the ex-Shrewsbury Town boss confirmed he had negotiated an extended loan deal for Wesleigh Fletcher from Burnley, and said he was ‘delighted’ with the progress of the teenager.

“Burnley realise that we’re looking after Wes, he’s been quick and strong up front for us and now he’s got his first with a very well-taken goal, hopefully he can go on a little run because as we see now, we can’t just rely on George Donnelly because then we’re in a pickle when he doesn’t score. Wes can be the lad to fire in a few for us.”