Cardiff City 3 – 1 Peterborough United
Location: Cardiff City Stadium
Date: 15th February, 2012
Attendance: 21,342
Where do I start??
On a positive note! Matt Briggs started his first game for Posh since his loan period from Fulham started and he showed a lot of potential. He was at fault for letting Gestede run free onto a corner which resulted in Cardiff`s second goal, but Gestede hardly lost a header against every single Posh defender that played against him. If he can learn from his experiences, he should become a very good player and hopefully Posh can keep hold of him for the remainder of the season.
Surely that was the only positive to come out of the match? Well, not really! Posh actually dominated the game for the best part of 30 minutes before a lack of concentration led to three very poor goals being conceded in just six minutes! However, Posh are lacking something going forward and struggle to penetrate the opposition.
George Boyd is wasted at the top of the diamond and needs to go back to the left. Whether he was injured or not, he didn`t have a very good game before he was replaced by Tomlin. Lee Frecklington doesn`t seem the same player he was before his injury but hopefully it`s just lack of match fitness that is affecting his game.
We all know Danny Kearns played a long season in Ireland before he came to Posh but it is a mystery why he still remains on the sidelines and doesn`t even make the bench. On current form, or the form showed the last time he played for Posh, Kearns should be starting in place of Frecklington.
With Ryan Bennett having signed for Norwich, how will it affect his game at Posh? Well, for the majority of the game he was largely anonymous. He`s only got two games left for Posh but he needs to keep his standards up as he certainly let his standards slip in this game!
The main downside of the game was loss of Gaby Zakuani to injury. He aggravated his long standing toe injury and is a doubt for the must win game on Saturday against Bristol City. It is rumoured he wasn`t fit prior to the match and that would`ve accounted for his poor performance during the game. There again, if he was injured, why play him?
With Gaby facing the possibility of a few weeks on the sidelines, it is now very urgent that we bring someone with some experience in to bolster the defence.
A recent poll on Vital Posh asked which area should Posh strengthen next and a resounding 52% of the votes went for the forward position. This was obviously conducted before the Zakuani injury which may make a centre-back our next vital recruit but if we can sort that out, we do need to look at the forward position.
Paul Taylor seems to be the first name down on the team sheet in the forward position with David Ball being the current partner. However, I have to say I don`t believe Ball is good enough for the Championship! He may have potential but potential is something we can`t afford at the minute. I`m not the biggest Sinclair fan but I`ve been wanting Sinclair to come on in place of Ball recently and I certainly expect Sinclair to start the game on Saturday against Bristol City. Posh certainly looked a more dangerous threat going forward when Sinclair was on the pitch and he caused Cardiff the occasional problem.
Overall, Cardiff were worthy of their win based on the number of chances they created. Despite the calamity of the first goal, Joe Lewis did stop a landslide of goals being conceded and shouldn`t be slaughtered because of the first goal.
If Posh are going to survive in the Championship and at the moment it looks like we`re in for a long, hard relegation scrap, we need re-enforcements. Young players with potential and for the future are no good to the team now. We need players that can walk straight into the team if needed. Hopefully Fergie will act sooner rather than later to bolster the squad as the club knows how much it will cost financially if we are relegated again. We need to stay in the Championship and build on the team we have and if that means bringing in some experience for a short period until the end of the season then so be it, it will be worth it if we retain our Championship status.
DON’T FORGET YOU CAN VOTE FOR YOUR MAN OF THE MATCH.
UP THE POSH!
Follow me on Twitter: @mwl1967
Photo courtesy of www.theposhpics.com
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