Tricky Trees
Yesterday the Easter football continued when we went to London Road to see Peterborough take on Nottingham Forest in the Championship. When I bought the tickets Forest were in dreadful form, so I had been looking forward to seeing Posh beat one of my least favourite teams of yesteryear.
A lot of neutrals don't seem to have anything against Forest, but back when they were good they always seemed to annoy me. First they always seemed to win from a dubiously won free kick that was put in by Stuart Pearce after another Forest player pushed over someone in the wall to make a gap. If it wasn't that it would be a dodgy penalty. Then there was the appalling treatment of away fans who were kept behind for hours and generally treated like crap and their total flaunting of ticketing rules. Oh, and they are a bunch of scabs.
I had totally forgotten about these prejudices, but they all came flooding back yesterday.
Apart from running into their obnoxious fans on trains and in town their team made it clear that they weren't above bending the rules. The worst thing being they seemed to get away with pushing, diving and generally manhandling the Posh players for the most part of the game. Gabriel Zakuani must have felt he was in a wrestling match at every set piece where he got wrestled to the ground more often than not by Joel Lynch, although Dexter Blackstock took over when the fracas were in the Posh area.
To be fair though Forest looked the stronger of the sides and got of to a terrific start and Paul Jones in goals and Gabriel Zakuani in defence probably saved Posh from being a few goals down from the early moments. The woodwork also saved Posh early on when Blackstock hit the bar and McGuggan the post in the opening 10 minutes.
Posh weren't helped by the fact that they were missing on form striker Tyrone Barnett and after 18 minutes Emile Sinclair had to be substituted for David Ball who until recently was on loan to Rochdale. Posh also had a few chances though with Newell and Boyd coming close on 20 and 22 minutes.
Forest came back at Borough though with Jones doing well to save from Blackstock twice and Majewski once at around the 25 minute mark. Forest did finally get the goal that they deserved on 38 minutes though when Dexter Blackstock scored for the visitors.
In the second half things evened out and it felt like Posh could get back into the game, especially as despite their dominance Forest didn't look good and their general fitness and poor marking could have been exploited if Posh had been on better form and if they had had a decent striker. Posh were passing the ball around well, but weren't looking like scoring.
Things changed on 70 minutes though when McLeary was sent off for a soft foul on McCann. This was perhaps a bit unjust and will be what the Forest fans will remember, but as far as I am concerned it just evened things out a bit.
After this it was all Posh and Forest had to be content with time wasting as much as possible. McCann and Boyd came close, but it ended 1-0 to Forest.
A lot of neutrals don't seem to have anything against Forest, but back when they were good they always seemed to annoy me. First they always seemed to win from a dubiously won free kick that was put in by Stuart Pearce after another Forest player pushed over someone in the wall to make a gap. If it wasn't that it would be a dodgy penalty. Then there was the appalling treatment of away fans who were kept behind for hours and generally treated like crap and their total flaunting of ticketing rules. Oh, and they are a bunch of scabs.
I had totally forgotten about these prejudices, but they all came flooding back yesterday.
Apart from running into their obnoxious fans on trains and in town their team made it clear that they weren't above bending the rules. The worst thing being they seemed to get away with pushing, diving and generally manhandling the Posh players for the most part of the game. Gabriel Zakuani must have felt he was in a wrestling match at every set piece where he got wrestled to the ground more often than not by Joel Lynch, although Dexter Blackstock took over when the fracas were in the Posh area.
To be fair though Forest looked the stronger of the sides and got of to a terrific start and Paul Jones in goals and Gabriel Zakuani in defence probably saved Posh from being a few goals down from the early moments. The woodwork also saved Posh early on when Blackstock hit the bar and McGuggan the post in the opening 10 minutes.
Posh weren't helped by the fact that they were missing on form striker Tyrone Barnett and after 18 minutes Emile Sinclair had to be substituted for David Ball who until recently was on loan to Rochdale. Posh also had a few chances though with Newell and Boyd coming close on 20 and 22 minutes.
Forest came back at Borough though with Jones doing well to save from Blackstock twice and Majewski once at around the 25 minute mark. Forest did finally get the goal that they deserved on 38 minutes though when Dexter Blackstock scored for the visitors.
In the second half things evened out and it felt like Posh could get back into the game, especially as despite their dominance Forest didn't look good and their general fitness and poor marking could have been exploited if Posh had been on better form and if they had had a decent striker. Posh were passing the ball around well, but weren't looking like scoring.
Things changed on 70 minutes though when McLeary was sent off for a soft foul on McCann. This was perhaps a bit unjust and will be what the Forest fans will remember, but as far as I am concerned it just evened things out a bit.
After this it was all Posh and Forest had to be content with time wasting as much as possible. McCann and Boyd came close, but it ended 1-0 to Forest.
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