There’s a rivalry with Peterborough that many fans of a certain age don’t get.
For those of us who are old enough to remember, the whole Keith poaching thing, players going there, and Barry Fry’s involvement make this a tasty fixture. It’s always been like that for me – Peterborough isn’t local, but it’s a rivalry. Perhaps, for newer fans, they’re just a side who have (annoyingly) been a lot better than us since we came back into the league.
They have, by the way. Sure, we should have been better than them in 2021/21, but thanks to good recruitment, they’re always the side one step ahead. They’ve always got the attackers rated in the millions. They’ve always got the recent Championship experience. They’re always the ones looking to buy our players (Woodyard, Grant and Edum recently, and yes, Edun turned them down). They’re like a big brother who is a couple of years older, always pinching the pretty girls in your year and giving you a bit of a slap when you complain.
Well, ‘not no more’. Now, they feel like they’re turned; they’re still that bit older, but now with wrinkles and a bit of grey in their beard. The things that made them hard are slowly fading, and while they still have players such as Poku, on the whole, they feel more like we can give them a bit of a slap back if they start. Yesterday, they didn’t really start, and in a slapping contest we came out even. For now.
It’s not just them that feel a bit tired and old. There’s still Fergie in the dugout, like it’s prime 2013. The stand we were in feels like it wouldn’t be out of place in the 1800s, with awkward, narrow walkways to toilets causing pinch points, cramped seats and a lack of adequate stewarding causing issues in the stand. I won’t focus on it too much, but if we’re there again next season, I won’t be paying £27 for the experience. I’ve only been to two grounds that I’ve ever felt were genuinely dangerous, Hillsborough and now London Road.
That said, some of the ground does look decent, a bit like ours, and the same goes for their team. They might not be laden with those recognisable names, but they’re still a reasonable League One outfit that I’d like to think we’re on a par with. We made a couple of interesting calls – Jeffries preferred at wing back to Erik Ring, and he repaid that faith with a good outing and an assist. Conor McGrandles was back in, adding a nice balance to the side, and Jovon started ahead of Bailey Cadamarteri once again. Posh swapped their defence around after Chris suggested they might not, and recalled Ricky Jade-Jones, who I’ve heard a lot of chatter about, but never been convinced is as good as Posh fans think.
The home side love the ball, they never seem to let the bloody thing go, but a lot of yesterday’s possession was without a purpose. I did worry early doors, they kicked off and it was like a training game, they just kept the ball as we chased shadows. I think that possession resulted in a half-chance, but we protected the goal and finally got our first touch about three minutes in. Phew, I thought it might be like the 4-0 a couple of seasons ago.
It wasn’t; it was an engrossing game of football that actually felt better than it was. Looking at the stats, it should have been 0-0 on the balance of xG, (0.81 for us v 0.91 for them) and only a couple of the chances were really clear cut. Funny, how the good ‘ol fashioned eye test can see a better game than numbers can. Sometimes.
I felt we had a clear game plan, which was let them have the ball, do what they want within a certain area, and then for us to spring attacks as and when the opportunity presented itself. They had set up to have the ball, but make sure that when we tried to spring an attack, they were alert to it. There were a couple of times when we looked to get away and there was a little tug or pull to stop it, a tactical yellow, which I don’t like but all teams do it. It’s good for the panto – a bit of a villain is great, especially when deep down, you know that both teams do exactly the same.
We tried to load the box at set pieces and I felt the first couple caused them problems, but after that, we didn’t really make use of the situations. We’ve been strong at set pieces this season, but clearly missed Paudie lurking on the back stick. Him and Jacko together cause issues from corners, and perhaps Posh were saved yesterday by a referee decision from a fortnight ago (for the record, the correct decision). Had we got the twin towers in the area at set pieces, I think we’d have been more of a threat from corners and Hamer’s long throw.
We did feel our way nicely into the game, and almost everything positive we did involved Ethan Erhahon at some point. He’s utterly exquisite, a man who caresses the ball with love and tenderness, who barks at opponents with anger and disdain. He’s a walking contradiction, a man who outwardly projects an uncouth, niggly disrupter, but on the ball becomes careful, balanced and thoughtful. His passing is spot on, his close footwork outrageously measured and whenever we won the ball back, the first pass was often from whoever won it to Erhahon, allowing him to then become the architect. I thought we gave him the ball in some tight areas at times, but ‘tight area’ is just our opinion of the situation. For him, it means nothing.
Our goal was described in our Stacey West group chat by one over-enthusiastic young man as ‘One of the greatest goals I’ve ever seen us score’. Bear in mind that last season, 99% of fixtures he didn’t actually see until afterwards and you might class it as hyperbole, but it was a lovely goal. It flies in the face of those who say we’re not a threat from open play, and that we need a striker – it came from the most open passage of Imps play all afternoon, and was finished by Mr Three Goals in Six Games himself, Ben House. He has now scored more goals in six matches than he did in 22 last season, and it was a lovely, deft finish from a man who many fans might have forgotten is a real jewel in our crown, given his injury-hampered 2023/24 campaign.
You must be logged in to post a comment.