Ian Sampson hails ‘fantastic night’ for Northampton after beating Peterborough

Northampton caretaker boss Ian Sampson hailed a “fantastic night” for the club after his first game in interim charge ended in a 2-1 victory over Peterborough.

Cameron McGeehan scored twice, including an 84th-minute winner, as the Cobblers ended a six-game winless run to move out of the League One relegation zone.

Ian Sampson

“It’s a fantastic night for the club and it’s always a great achievement to beat your local rivals,” said Sampson, who is in temporary charge after Jon Brady resigned last week.

“Having looked at the stats before the game, that’s not something we’ve done much of in the last few years.

“But we did it last season at home and we’ve matched it tonight and it’s absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t be prouder of the players.

“I asked for honesty before the game and I think they gave me that in bundles all the way through to the 94th minute and to get a late winner, that was a great feeling.

“It’s a brilliant night for the fans and this is their game. It’s the big one for them and they haven’t seen many wins so to be able to sing that song at the end must have been a pleasure for them.”

Asked if he wants the job on a full-time basis, Sampson added: “I thought that question might come up but I’ve got to be honest, it’s not even entered my thought process.

“My focus has been on preparing for the game. We’ll just see what happens.”

Darren Ferguson

Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson said: “It probably sums up our season. We’re coming away from the game scratching our heads wondering how we haven’t won.

“We should go 2-1 up with Ricky’s (Jade-Jones) chance and if we do we probably win the game because we had the speed to hurt them in transition, but I’ve seen a lot of good things tonight.

“We dominated large parts and you’re just waiting for us to score the winning goal but we can’t find it and that gives them hope, and the two goals we conceded just weren’t good enough.

“We’re giving such soft goals away. I’m not going to complain about the first goal. We’ve lost our man and it’s a goal. Our goalkeeper was moaning about something but ultimately it’s a bad goal to concede.

“They changed their manager but the focus was on us and I thought large parts of our performance were good and there were some real positives.

“I still have a lot of confidence in these players and I saw a team that played with belief but the chances we missed and the goals we conceded just sum our season up.

“They didn’t cause us too many problems but the winning goal they score, it’s shocking. I don’t see other teams doing that.”

READ MORE: Cameron McGeehan’s brace earns Northampton victory against Peterborough