COUNTY manager Justin Edinburgh hailed his side for their display despite defeat to Peterborough United in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

The Exiles boss was pleased with a marked improvement from Saturday's FA Cup exit at Kidderminster Harriers as County proved to be a real test for the Championship chasers.

"I am proud of the team, extremely, we came up against a very good side and for long periods we matched them and the response I wanted, in terms of the intensity of our game, it was there," he said.

"We've unfortunately gone out of the cup, but the scoreline doesn't reflect the closeness of the game, we were chasing and got hit on the break, but we've come up against a team who were clinical and our strikers don't have their shooting boots at the moment.

"That's football, it's the way of strikers, Conor (Washington) we'd like to be able to rest but can't at the moment and Christian (Jolley) is trying to find his form after coming back from injury.

"He's not quite there yet, but something will happen and then he'll go on a run. But at the moment, as a group, our strikers are having a tough time."

Edinburgh feels the club can take plenty of positives from their experience in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

"We've enjoyed it, come up against some really good sides and no better than Peterborough, a Championship side last season."

Edinburgh feels any bad feeling from the Kidderminster game is now behind him and his players.

"I think I put Saturday into context, I've heard we were overrun and I disagree, I will always be honest about the team and I didn't think we should be 4-0 down," he said.

"I've watched the game again and we could've done better of course, but there are positives to take from the whole season and on days like that, no-one is more upset than us because of the standards we've set.

"On the day it was more individual errors than anything and I thought on Tuesday we really gave a good account of ourselves and demonstrated where we have come from in a really short space of time.

"Peterborough were in the Championship last season and went down on the last day (after 83 minutes of that game, they were safe from relegation) and we were in the Conference.

"We aren't used to losing as a club and it hurts, but we gave a good account of ourselves in the Johnstone's Paint and now we can concentrate on trying to get back-to-back promotions."