Posh U21s face The Robins in the first game of the Premier League Cup.
Peterborough United U21s are set to begin their Premier League Cup campaign on Friday evening (7pm) as they travel to Robins Heath Performance Centre to face Bristol City U21s.
Posh have been drawn into the group with The Robins, Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur, with the latter two facing off against eachother next week at the Lamex Stadium,
The under 21s kicked off their Professional Development League campaign on Tuesday afternoon, but suffered a 3-0 defeat to Colchester United at the Weston Homes Stadium and U21s Lead Professional Development Phase Coach, Ryan Semple, reflected on the loss to The U’s.
Semple said: “If we look back at the first half, I thought we started okay and had a couple of half chances and one thing that was quite common throughout the game was that we got a lot of balls into the box. The biggest thing though, especially in the second half, was that in transition we were quite open and gave the ball away cheaply, which is what happened with the first goal. They took their two goals very well, but they were situations that happened due to our mistakes.”
Posh have enjoyed success in this competition previously, reaching the quarter-final two seasons ago before being knocked out by Wolverhampton Wanderers, while beating category one academy side Blackburn Rovers last season in the group.
The Robins kicked off their 2023/24 campaign on Monday and draw 1-1 with Crewe Alexandra, but reached the play-offs last season after finishing second in the table and Semple is expecting a tough afternoon against The Robins.
Semple added: “We are looking forward to the game, it will be a tough test especially with the league season starting again. They will be a difficult outfit and had a decent performance earlier this week, but it’s one we are excited about and should be confident about if we get our performance right and play our style of football. One thing I do know is that the players want to put on a good performance after Tuesday’s game.
“Two seasons ago, we reached the quarter-final of the competition and lost to Wolves, but we topped the group that year. If you look back at last season, we had some good results against Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers but, unfortunately, we didn’t qualify. They were some good away days in the Premier League Cup, it’s a fantastic competition and gives us the opportunity to play teams we wouldn’t usually face.”