Jekyll and Hyde at London Road
Yesterday I went to London Road for the fourth time to see Peterborough take on Charlton Athletic. At the start of the day both of the teams were in a play off position. Peterborough had started off the season well, but have lost their way since being thoroughly beaten by Brighton and the absennce of George Boyd after a sending off in that game. Conversely, Charlton seemed to start the season off badly, but improved after being beaten comprehensively by Brighton a few weeks back.
A trip to London Road though usually guarantees a few goals and looking on TV and from the odd occasion I have made the joutney there most of the goals go in in the London Road End, so I was looking forward to a bit of a goal fest right in front of where I was standing and I wasn't disappointed in that sense. However, the reason for such goal fests seems to lie in the fact that Posh have some forwards who wouldn't be out of place in the Championship and have decided to couple this with a Conference level defence, unfortunately it was the comical defence who were in prominence on Saturday afternoon.
Things got off to a bad start with Grant McCann needlessly fouling Scott Wagstaff and Johnnie Jackson converting the penalty in front of the London Road end on 15 minutes. Things were about to go from bad to worse and the Posh goal keeper Joe Lewis ( who ironically seems to feature more often than not as Peterborough's man of the match and was player of the year last season despite the fact that for the second year in a row Posh have one of the worst defences in the league)was not able to hold back a Charlton side on rampant form and a comical defence. Therry Rackon made it 2-0 on 25 minutes, before Jackson got his second on 36 and Lee Martin made it 4-0 just a couple of minutes later. So, at half time it was 4-0 to the Valiants with all the goals being scored at the London Road end.
The second half got under way and the crowd were well behind the Peterborough team, who have a bit of a reputation of amazing comebacks, so despite the defecit there was still a feeling that Posh could get something from the game. That feeling increased on 53 minutes when McCann made up for his earlier misjudgement by scoring a well taken goal. At this point it was all Peterborough and Aarom McClean was causing all sorts of problems for the visitors. However, there was to be anoother twist and the twist was that of a knife when more ridiculous defending allowed Lee Martin to get his second and to put Charlton 5-1 up on 65 minutes.
Petrborough carried on fighting, but Charlton weren't going to let them back in the game in the same way Swindon and Huddersfield had earlier in the season. They packed out the defence and were responsible for some of the worst time wasting I have ever seen. The biggest villain of the piece being Charlton goalkeeper Rob Elliot, who whilst gettting treatment for an 'injured' elbow actually had the cheek to turn round and wink at the Peterborough fans.
Anyway, I can't really complain, it was a poor performanc eby Peterborough and an efficient one by Charlton and from a more or less neutral point of view I did get to see 6 goals and 5 of them were at the end I was standing at.
A trip to London Road though usually guarantees a few goals and looking on TV and from the odd occasion I have made the joutney there most of the goals go in in the London Road End, so I was looking forward to a bit of a goal fest right in front of where I was standing and I wasn't disappointed in that sense. However, the reason for such goal fests seems to lie in the fact that Posh have some forwards who wouldn't be out of place in the Championship and have decided to couple this with a Conference level defence, unfortunately it was the comical defence who were in prominence on Saturday afternoon.
Things got off to a bad start with Grant McCann needlessly fouling Scott Wagstaff and Johnnie Jackson converting the penalty in front of the London Road end on 15 minutes. Things were about to go from bad to worse and the Posh goal keeper Joe Lewis ( who ironically seems to feature more often than not as Peterborough's man of the match and was player of the year last season despite the fact that for the second year in a row Posh have one of the worst defences in the league)was not able to hold back a Charlton side on rampant form and a comical defence. Therry Rackon made it 2-0 on 25 minutes, before Jackson got his second on 36 and Lee Martin made it 4-0 just a couple of minutes later. So, at half time it was 4-0 to the Valiants with all the goals being scored at the London Road end.
The second half got under way and the crowd were well behind the Peterborough team, who have a bit of a reputation of amazing comebacks, so despite the defecit there was still a feeling that Posh could get something from the game. That feeling increased on 53 minutes when McCann made up for his earlier misjudgement by scoring a well taken goal. At this point it was all Peterborough and Aarom McClean was causing all sorts of problems for the visitors. However, there was to be anoother twist and the twist was that of a knife when more ridiculous defending allowed Lee Martin to get his second and to put Charlton 5-1 up on 65 minutes.
Petrborough carried on fighting, but Charlton weren't going to let them back in the game in the same way Swindon and Huddersfield had earlier in the season. They packed out the defence and were responsible for some of the worst time wasting I have ever seen. The biggest villain of the piece being Charlton goalkeeper Rob Elliot, who whilst gettting treatment for an 'injured' elbow actually had the cheek to turn round and wink at the Peterborough fans.
Anyway, I can't really complain, it was a poor performanc eby Peterborough and an efficient one by Charlton and from a more or less neutral point of view I did get to see 6 goals and 5 of them were at the end I was standing at.
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