Peterborough superfan Adrian Durham has defended Darren Ferguson after the club’s manager came under fire for his decision not to bring on Tyler Young during last night’s FA Cup third round tie against Everton.
The teenager had been hoping to play against his dad, the former Manchester United and England winger Ashley.
Young senior, now 39, had been optimistic of the chances of etching his name into the FA Cup folklore and when he was introduced to the fray with 17 minutes remaining it looked as though a history making event was on the cards.
With Everton, who had parted company with Sean Dyche just hours before kick-off, protecting a slender one-goal lead, Ferguson used his last substitute to chase an equalising goal.
Tyler Young, a defender, therefore, remained on the bench and watched on as his side eventually fell to a 2-0 defeat.
‘I’ve got to do what’s best for my team and we’re not a charity case,’ Ferguson said after the game.
‘As much as I wanted Tyler to go on with his dad, one of their players had a bit of a pop at me, which is bang out of order.
‘I’ve got to do what’s best for our team and at that point at 1-0 I’m trying to get a result.’
Veteran talkSPORT broadcaster Durham, a huge Posh fan, sided with his manager and claimed history would’ve been made had Everton not made such hard work of seeing off modest opposition.
‘As I said on@talkSPORT breakfast show at 7am if Everton had played better and put away a struggling League One side earlier in the evening Tyler Young would’ve come on.
‘Those underperforming EFC players should be the ones questioned, not Darren Ferguson.’
In the immediate aftermath of the game, Ashley Young wrote on X that he was ‘gutted’ which drew a supportive response from an Everton fan.
Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony, however, leapt to the defence of Ferguson, the son of Young’s former manager Sir Alex.
He wrote: ‘This nonsense has to stop. My manger was 100% correct in his actions. This wasn’t some friendly or exhibition event.
‘Tyler is doing fantastic with our 21’s & progressing phenomenally with bright future but bringing him on at that time considering circumstances around game with us one down with minutes left was not right thing for team.
‘Putting stupid tweets out asking for him to be sacked is unintelligent & frankly moronic. In time even Ashley will appreciate this as opposed to his current feeling around it. Cheers.’