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Peterborough United 1 – 2 Leeds United

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Peterborough United 1 – 2 Leeds United
Location: London Road
Date: 25th August, 2012
Attendance: 10,432 (3,701 Leeds fans)



Posh lost their third League match in a row on Saturday as they suffered a defeat to Neil Warnock`s Leeds United.

Following the farcical performance from Posh against Millwall in midweek, everyone was looking for a much improved performance from the boys in blue. Although it wasn`t a brilliant performance, it certainly was a much better showing and some could argue that we were unlucky not to snatch a point.

The problem is, despite the tactics put in place by Fergie, the errors Posh are making that are gifting goals to the opposition.

It was another poor performance from Craig Alcock, who looks as shadow of the player he was last season, and it was his mistake that let in Leeds for their first goal. Ross McCormack capitalised on Alcocks poor header as he raced away before pulling the ball back to Luciano BECCHIO who struck a powerful show from around the penalty spot which Olejnik just failed to stop despite getting a hand to the ball.

The match saw the first competitive return of former Posh left-back Adam Drury [pictured below] and he was lucky not to be cautioned early on as he was very late with a sliding one footed, studs showing tackle on Frecklington. He obviously wanted to give a good account of himself to the Posh fans but his overenthusiastic challenges were penalised on a number of occasions. Luckily for him, the referee appeared to be a Leeds fan as he not only failed to dish out any yellow cards to Drury or his teammates, but made a lot of questionable decisions which all went in Leeds` favour!





With former captain Grant McCann deservedly returning to the starting line-up, Poshs set pieces improved greatly and it was from one corner that Posh nearly equalised. Both Brisley and Zakuani had attempts to force the ball into the net but Paddy Kenny was equal to their efforts before the Whites managed to clear their lines.

Brisley came close yet again from a McCann freekick. It was virtually identical to Tommy Rowes Old Trafford goal as Brisley glanced his header towards goal but unfortunately his effort went just wide of the post.

Just past the half hour mark, the impressive Ross McCormack nearly doubled Leeds` advantage but his header went wide of the goal from a Lee Peltier cross.

Half-time: Peterborough United 0 – 1 Leeds United

No changes were made at half time but many Posh fans were expecting changes to be made sooner rather than later.

It was Leeds who started the brighter again as Peterborian David Norris tested Olejnik before a long range effort by Lee Tomlin caused problems for Kenny as he was forced to palm away the blistering effort.

Just as Leeds had done in the first half, they scored early in the second half and it was the McCormack/Becchio combination that was the undoing of Posh again. McCormack, from the Leeds` right hand side this time, picked out BECCHIO, who had easily peeled away from Brisley, and with right-back Alcock nowhere to be seen he planted his header into the net.

With the pitch bathed in sunlight, it was actually bucketing down with rain with the sight and sound of thunder and lightning coming from the back of the South Stand. Both sets of players continued to battle away although some lazy defending by Ntlhe allowed Leeds to collect the ball before Ntlhe conceded a freekick just outside the box as he attempted to recover from his mistake. The resulting freekick went wide of Olejniks goal.

At the other end, Tomlin made a good run and he appeared to be up-ended just inside the box but the Leeds fan, sorry, the referee awarded a freekick just outside the area. Unfortunately McCanns freekick struck the wall.

Substitution time! Fergie finally sees the light and removes Alcock who is clearly not fit enough and Frecklington and introduces Mark Little and summer signing Danny Swanson.

The introduction of these two brings about a better tempo of play by Posh which is much appreciated by the Posh fans. A great header by Tomlin is tipped over by Kenny as Posh looked to reduce the arrears.

Forward Emile Sinclair is then replaced by Paul Taylor which again adds to the problems Posh had started to cause Leeds.

The referee made another bizarre decision when blowing for a foul against Little and issuing him with a yellow card after he and a Leeds player both slid to get the ball but as Posh won the ball, the referee obviously wanted Leeds to have the ball so he decided to blow his whistle again!!

Posh did manage to reduce the arrears with a peach of a volley from Michael BOSTWICK [pictured below] with the ball nestling into the bottom corner of the net. This lifted the home crowd even further and the Posh players reacted accordingly. Swanson was very impressive and looked very lively?a far cry from the disappointing Frecklington who he replaced.





Posh should`ve snatched an equaliser late on in the game as another dangerous McCann corner found the head of an unmarked Zakuani but he could only direct his header well wide of the goal!

Posh did have one last chance with a freekick which came to nothing as did a corner for Leeds before the referee blew for full time after four added minutes.

Full-time: Peterborough United 1 – 2 Leeds United

Posh: Olejnik, Alcock (Little 62mins), Brisley, Zakuani, Ntlhe, Bostwick, McCann, Frecklington (Swanson 62mins), Boyd, Tomlin, Sinclair (Taylor 64mins).
Unused subs: Day, Knight-Percival, Newell, Clarke-Harris.

Leeds: Kenny, Peltier, Lees, Pearce, Drury, Austin, Norris, Varney, Diouf (Byram 75mins), Becchio (Gray 87mins), (McCormack (Poleon 78mins).
Unused subs: Ashdown, Kisnorbo, White, Brown.

Referee: Scott Mathieson

DON`T FORGET TO VOTE FOR YOUR MAN OF THE MATCH.
Vote in the poll on the right hand side of this page. Results will be announced on Wednesday 29th August.

UP THE POSH!



twitter Follow me on Twitter: @mwl1967

Photos courtesy of www.theposhpics.com .

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