Stockport manager Dave Challinor saw Jack Diamond come good as his stoppage-time equaliser earned a 1-1 draw at Peterborough and all-but assured his side of a play-off place.
Diamond, along with his team-mates, endured a frustrating afternoon at the Weston Homes Stadium where Posh looked set to claim another scalp after upsetting Birmingham in the Vertu Trophy final last Sunday.
However, the former Sunderland man’s superb strike left the Hatters needing just one more point to secure a top-six berth in Sky Bet League One with what was his third goal in four games.
Challinor said: “He’s gone on a scoring run, which is great, and he’ll get pats on the back for that.
“I have to be careful with Jack because my hopes for him, and what he can do, don’t change in terms of where he’s at.
“I’ve said he needs to add numbers but he needs to be more reliable for us – he turned the ball over miles too much in the first half and he turned the ball over too much in the second half in not-great areas.
“But you’ve seen when he gets the ball at the top end of the pitch he can be a threat because he can go either way and he caused them as many problems as their front four caused us.
“A great strike with his weaker foot and hopefully he can continue to score the goals that he has and play an important part.”
Peterborough led after 43 minutes when Ricky-Jade Jones beat Ethan Pye to the ball on the halfway line to race through and finish past Corey Addai.
Diamond then rescued a point for Stockport in the first minute of added time when his drive from just outside the area arrowed into the bottom corner.
Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson said: “I thought we were well worth the lead and a great goal by Ricky because he’s had a long time to think about it, and it’s a great finish.
“I thought we were worthy (of the lead) at half-time, we were good, but we started the second half poorly.
“We gave the ball away straight away, we lost the second ball, they got the impetus quickly in the second half, they got their punters up.
“I was disappointed with the start of the second half and that set the tone a little bit, and they got a bit more control without really hurting us.
“Their set-pieces are a threat and I thought we dealt with them really well.
“They’re a very good team, the league doesn’t lie, they’re there for a reason, but I just felt one or two moments at 1-0 we could have killed the game and unfortunately we didn’t.”
