The Peterborough match in April was a right sickener when they equalized in stoppage-time and put a major dent in our promotion hopes. They haven't made a good start this season – winning two, losing two and drawing one – and with the great run we're on I fancy us to get a win this afternoon. Maguire is sounding doubtful but McNulty was back in training so maybe we'll see him on as a sub today. One very pleasing thing about our season so far is that many different players have scored, even Grigg now, and that's a far cry from when we had to rely on Defoe most of the time. I'm up in Sunderland for the weekend otherwise I would've been at the match and will be watching the game on TV at a local hostelry. Match prediction: 2-1 to us.
I got to the pub and soon got the team news which confirmed that McNulty was starting in place of Maguire. I was in a bit of a queue at the bar and didn't get back to my seat till about four minutes in, just in time to see us take a corner from which McGeady shot not too far over. Soon Posh had us under pressure and McLaughlin had to make a great diving save to deny them. They continued to have much the better of it and we were showing ominous signs again of passing backwards to go forwards. In the nineteenth minute Wyke burst into their box and went to ground but no penalty ever looked likely. At least we were getting up their end a bit more. We won a couple of free-kicks not far from the right angle of their box after Posh dealt out some tasty fouls but nothing came of them. By the half-hour mark it was a much more balanced game but then the screen froze and we were at a loss as to what was happening for five minutes or so because the internet was iffy too. Anyway, we discovered that we'd gone one-down in the thirty-sixth minute from a Maddison free-kick. Normal screen service was resumed five minutes before the break and shortly afterwards McNulty burst into their box down the left and got a shot on target but Pym in goal had it well covered. He would've done better to pass it to Wyke. It remained 0-1 at the break.
The second-half started off lively for both sides and we won a free-kick in a great spot near their right corner-flag but couldn't make much of it. Almost immediately we were two-down when Posh broke quickly and Knight hit a low shot into the net from the left-angle of our box. It looked like a mountain for us to climb so we needed to make one or two clever substitutions before too long. We pressed them well and Wyke was yellow-carded, a bit harshly in my opinion as he seemed to be going for the ball. Grigg replaced Gooch just after the hour-mark but soon after we were three-down when Maddison's low shot seemed to go through one of our defender's legs with McLaughlin well beaten. With twenty minutes to go things went from bad to worse when O'Nien was red-carded after a tussle with someone I couldn't identify who made as if he'd been kung-feud. We brought Flanagan on for McNulty in an attempt to shore things up at the back. In the seventy-seventh minute things went from worse to even worse when Wyke joined O'Nien in the bath after getting a second yellow for a foul. Dobson promptly came on for McGeady. The screen started freezing again and maybe it was taking pity on us. When the transmission returned Leadbitter got a yellow and I just hoped he wasn't about to make it a double as well. It ended 3-0 and I suppose that's better than the 4-0 I'd feared.
This was almost as bad as it gets. I'm off to Empire Spice for some comfort food. Other Indian restaurants are available – I hope a new defender or two will soon be available too.
