Barnsley 1 – 0 Peterborough United
Location: Oakwell
Date: 24th March, 2012
Attendance: 9,698
After three impressive performances, everyone was optimistic that Posh would get something out of this match against Barnsley.
After four successive games without scoring a goal, many Barnsley fans were expecting the worst as they faced one of the most attack minded teams in the Championship.
However, Tykes boss Keith Hill had his players wound up ready for the match as they came out playing a very physical game from the first minute and it was surprising that many of the challenges went unpunished by the referee who had a poor game.
The physical game certainly paid dividends as it put Posh off their stride as they put in such an inept performance that was totally unacceptable. Not one Posh player came out of the match with any credit, such was the poor, lack-lustre, disappointing performance.
Barnsley even had a player sent off during the first half but by then, they had taken the lead through David COTTERILL and put off Posh to such an extent that Posh could hardly put two decent passes together.
Even with a man advantage after Nathan Doyle had been sent off for a crude challenge on Lee Tomlin, Posh were poor and played so many sideways balls, there was just no threat going forward against a team fighting desperately for the three points that would go a long way to Championship safety.
Posh have often struggled against teams that pack out the defence and midfield and with Barnsley now employing 10 men behind the ball, Posh yet again struggled to create anything and break the opposition down. So often, players took the wrong choice of pass when they opted to pass to someone who was being tightly marked instead of making the easy pass to people who were free!
Even after the break when Darren Ferguson made some changes, Posh went back to their frustrating best with Paul Taylor dribbling with the ball time after time without creating anything and as usual either ran up blind alleys without passing or taking on shots.
Overall, it was a very poor game. Awful to watch. Awful referee. All credit to Barnsley – they just about deserved the lead when going ahead and then they showed a real backs against the wall performance to grind out the three points.
Posh need to forget about this performance and get back the performances they put in prior to this game.
UP THE POSH!
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Photo courtesy of www.theposhpics.com
