Ephron Mason-Clark: Play-off pain will motivate Peterborough, says new captain

Ephron Mason-Clark joined Peterborough from Barnet in the summer of 2022

Peterborough United's new captain Ephron Mason-Clark has said the pain of their dramatic League One play-off defeat will motivate them this season.

Posh let a four-goal first-leg lead slip before losing on penalties to Sheffield Wednesday.

They start the new campaign on Saturday with an away game against Reading.

"When you look back, the players that were involved, they'll take that experience and learn from it,' Mason-Clark told BBC Look East.

"It was such a weird hour after the game. It was very quiet and emotional in the changing room afterwards.

"No one had ever experienced anything like it and I wouldn't want my worst enemy to go through what I experienced that day.

"After that final penalty, there was (like) an earthquake in the stadium. I looked across and was thinking 'wow, this was something I had never experienced before'."

Director of football Barry Fry admitted the defeat had been very difficult to overcome.

"Players, management, chairman, owners, I've been in football 63 years and I thought I'd seen everything. It was the biggest kick in the wotsits I've ever seen," he said.

Peterborough have a potentially tough opening month in the new league season.

Following the match at Reading, they have a home game against Charlton, followed by trips to beaten play-off finalists Barnsley and Northampton, who were promoted from League Two last term.

They end August by taking on a Derby County side still smarting from being pipped for a top-six place by Posh in 2022-23.

Manager Darren Ferguson has refreshed the squad over the summer, bringing in defenders Romoney Crichlow and Peter Kioso, midfielder Ryan de Havilland, striker Kabongo Tshimanga, and goalkeepers Daniel Bilokapic and Fynn Talley.

Last season's top scorer Jonson Clarke-Harris remains on the transfer list as he enters the final year of his contract and Ferguson expects talented young defender Ronnie Edwards to be sold.

But he is delighted by the professionalism and work-ethic of his new captain Mason-Clark, who scored 12 goals in 50 appearances last season as they came so close to a return to the Championship.

"It's about going straight back to work, working on the things we do well,' Mason-Clark added.

"There is no hangover, those days are gone. (But) The pain will fuel us for the rest of the season."