Posh's Steer frustrated by lack of clean sheets

Jed Steer saved two penalties against West Bromwich Albion in 2019 to help Aston Villa reach the Championship play-off final

'We're not asking fish to climb trees' is not the standard goalkeeper's response to being asked a question about the defensive performances of their team.

But it was an expression of Jed Steer's frustration following Peterborough United's 2-2 draw at Leyton Orient on Tuesday evening.

Posh have a largely new-look defence this season following the summer departures of Ronnie Edwards, Harrison Burrows and Josh Knight and have not kept a single clean sheet in nine league and cup games so far.

"As a defensive line. I feel that at times we can be stronger. Hopefully we'll dig out a clean sheet soon," Steer told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

"As a goalie, it's not just your saves, it's your general game, the way you make people feel around you, it's the talking, it's the whole package.

"For whatever reason we're giving away chances around our box, we've conceded from a lot of deflections which for me means, 'Are we getting close enough to the ball to block it?'"

Peterborough fell behind in the 20th minute at Orient, before scoring twice just before half-time to take the lead.

Former Aston Villa keeper Steer, though, felt the team were guilty of passing the ball backwards too often after the break, putting him in some tricky positions.

"I felt a lot of the lads took the easy option when things got a bit difficult - the easy option back to me and it's in those times that you need to play forward," he said.

"You've got to try and do the right things by being brave. We're all good enough to do it.

"They know I'm not happy. I had a few apologies. There's been a lot of changes and it's still early days for this team, players getting to know different positions, and decision-making when one pass is on and the other one's not.

"If you're asking fish to climb trees, you change your tactics, but we're not and they're all very good footballers, they're all very good on the ball, and the way we want to build, when it doesn't come off, that's when it's frustrating."

Steer signed a new contract with Peterborough over the summer, having made 22 appearances last season, including the EFL Trophy final at Wembley when they beat Wycombe Wanderers 2-1.

The 32-year-old has been first-choice for all seven league games so far this term and is set to return to the West Midlands on Saturday when they take on Birmingham City.

Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson was not impressed by his team's performance against Orient.

"In terms of game management I've seen a lot of naivety in our performance - last minute we get a corner, take it short and they end up counter-attacking us, that's just naive," he said.

"You're not gonna be perfect in every game but when you get it wrong on and off the ball I suppose you come away thinking a draw is a good result, but we need to improve massively for the weekend."