Sympathetic Stuart McCall has thrown his arm round Donovan Ricketts after his costly blunder at Peterborough.

Ricketts spilled a routine shot to gift Posh top scorer Aaron McLean an equaliser and City went on to lose 2-1.

The Jamaican, who was dropped for a spell after a dip in form earlier in the season, looked distraught after his error - but McCall is backing his number one to bounce straight back on Boxing Day.

McCall said: "That's the perils of being a keeper. You do well all game and then one mistake and it's curtains.

"If he didn't make that, Donovan would have been coming off with nine out of ten for his overall performance.

"He saved us two or three times with very good saves and it would have been nice if we'd maybe reacted quickest and saved him but it wasn't to be.

"He's naturally down but I don't want to be too hard on him because 95 per cent of his game was excellent - and he made another good save after that goal."

City, who had led at half-time from a Kyle Nix header, were sunk by a huge deflected goal two minutes from time that scorer Jeff Hughes knew nothing about.

McCall said: "Peterborough will probably say they deserved to win but that was a cruel way to lose.

"Make no bones about it, they are the best side we've played this season home and away. I'll be really surprised if they don't go up.

"We knew we would get forced back in the second half. That was down to Peterborough's quality, not the lack of anything from us.

"They're a very good team and you've got to hold your hands up. They have very strong players all over the park.

"It was always going to be a tough ask for us and I thought the lads applied themselves superbly. Now we've got to look to Boxing Day, which is another big game."

McCall gave Tom Penford his first start and Mark Bower was back in defence for the injured Matt Clarke.

Willy Topp was not included in the squad but travelled to London Road and took part in the warm-down exercises afterwards.

McCall said: "We've got a few days until the Lincoln game and there might be a couple of changes in the starting 11."

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