Michael Duff hailed two Cheltenham debutants following their first round Carabao Cup win at Peterborough.

Newcomers Liam Sercombe and Josh Griffiths delivered crucial contributions as the League Two side triumphed 1-0 at League One Posh.

Midfield ace Sercombe marked his first Town appearance after arriving from Bristol Rovers with the only goal when steering in a fine 25-yard strike just before the hour.

And teenage goalkeeper Griffiths – drafted in on a season-long loan from West Brom – starred with a series of smart saves in his first senior outing.

He denied former Town man Ryan Broom in the first half and produced top stops from Siriki Dembele and Mo Eisa early in the second period.

Even when Griffiths was beaten, the crossbar came to his rescue as Eisa was denied.

“Liam looked like a Rolls Royce and scoring like that is what he has been brought in to do” said Duff.

“I think we only scored one goal from outside the box last season and its definitely not a case of us asking players not to shoot.

“We finished fourth in League Two and our leading scorer got eight. We definitely need players to step up and hopefully Liam can get close to double-figures.

“Josh made some magnificent saves for us. He is a young lad who will make mistakes, but there isn’t a player in League Two who doesn’t do that.

“He’s been training with the West Brom first team for a reason – because they really like him – and he’s now here to get game experience.

“It wouldn’t have been the end of the world to be beaten by Peterborough, but we managed to get ourselves in front and see it out. We’re competitive animals and even if it’s a game of tiddlywinks, I want to win.”

Posh boss Darren Ferguson was not happy with his side’s start to the campaign.

“We have no-one to blame for going out of this cup but ourselves,” he said.

“We seemed to be two or three yards off the pace, particularly in the first half.

“We didn’t do the basics right and you have a good chance of losing any game of football when that is the case.

“We created chances and we should have had a lot more, but we always gave up too many opportunities for Cheltenham as well.

“The way we went about it was wrong. We didn’t have anywhere near enough intensity and run the hard yards, and I’ve got to find the solution for that.

“It’s really disappointing to start the season with a loss just as we also did last season, but we have to give the opposition plenty of credit too.

“We knew they were a good footballing team and we allowed them to grow in confidence through the game.”