Peterborough United manager Steve Evans was full of praise for his new signings after their 2-1 victory over Rochdale on Saturday afternoon.
On his second home debut for the club, Lee Tomlin opened the scoring to announce himself to the Peterborough United faithful for the second time. He produced a tidy finish after receiving the ball from debutant Kyle Dempsey.
George Cooper doubled the Posh’s lead in the second half, firing beyond Joe Lillis to put a two-goal deficit between The Posh and Rochdale.
There was enough time for Rochdale debutant Ethan Hamilton to smash home a brilliant strike from long range, but it was too little late as Keith Hill’s side returned to Spotland with nothing.
After the game, Posh boss Evans hailed the impact of Tomlin’s arrival.
“We are very fortunate to have a top, top player in our squad for the rest of the season,” Evans said to the Peterborough Telegraph.
“We already had a lot of attacking quality at our disposal, but we have now picked up a brilliant performer, someone who loves the club and who wants to taste success here again.
“We have to look after him. He didn’t want me to take him off again, but he needs to be managed so he doesn’t pick up any injuries. He’s effectively doing a pre-season with us, but what a player he is. He showed his class today with some wonderful touches and he has scored a high-class goal.
“But every day with us he will get fitter and he will also get better. The rest of the lads love him. You can tell what players feel about a player by their reaction when he scores and everyone bar Aaron Chapman ran up to him to celebrate.
“Lee is great around the dressing room. He is a big voice in there. I would say our chances of going up have increased with his arrival.”
“We have good options now,” Evans added.
“They were options we didn’t have before January. Kyle Dempsey is a fantastic player who offers us something a bit different.
Left-back Daniel Lafferty also impressed in Posh’s win over The Dale, providing an option in attack while also producing a defensively sound performance. Ben White arrived on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion last week but was benched after complaining of illness in the morning.
