Posh suffered their seventh straight League defeat after going down 2-0 to Wolves in what Darren Ferguson described as “embarrassing”!
Peterborough United 0 – 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Location: London Road
Date: 22nd September, 2012
Attendance: 9,820 (2,758 Wolves fans)
Posh have now made their worst ever start to League life and are heading to their worst ever run of games without a win (eight). Should Posh fail to pick anything up from their tough looking fixture on Saturday away at Hull City, they will equal the record of eight straight defeats.
In truth, Posh never looked like containing a team who played against the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea last season and with many players full Internationals, a Posh team mainly made up of lower League and Non-League players just couldn`t compete?or lacked the will or desire to compete!
Wolves comfortably ran the show and never had to up the gears to get the win. A very soft penalty gifted them the opening goal which saw Sylvan Ebanks-Blake blast the penalty straight down the middle of the goal. The only surprise of the game is that Wolves didn`t increase their lead until the final stages of the match when a simple kick from the goalkeeper was flicked on by Doyle to Sigurdarson who ran onto the ball to clip it over the on-rushing Olejnik and into the back of the net for his first goal in English football.
Darren Ferguson described the first half Posh performance as embarrassing! In fact, it wasn`t as embarrassing as the Millwall match a few weeks ago or the 5-2 drubbing by Burnley but it was another poor performance which lacked any sort of passion or commitment.
The only bright point of a disappointing match was the enthusiasm showed by Kane Ferdinand [pictured below] who was always looking for the ball but who must`ve been disappointed with his fellow players who just didn`t look interested in showing for the ball when he had it!
Fergie reckons he knows which players he can count on and which players he can`t but judging on all the games this year where Posh have won just four matches, it would seem from a fans point of view that there are more players on the “can`t count on” list!!
Fergie also knows what he has to do to get things ready for this weekends Hull City match but if that doesn`t include any loan players coming into the club, it is hard to see what Fergie has got up his sleeve!
Players like Danny Kearns must also be disappointed not to be given a chance to show what he is capable of. Yes, he is coming back from injury but surely by throwing him on for 45 minutes at a time will do him and Posh the world of good rather than loaning him out in a time where Fergie is refusing to bring loan players in and many other players just aren`t performing. He looked impressive in the pre-season games before he picked up a nasty injury against Aston Villa and hopefully he can soon regain his match fitness to boost Posh.
Posh have weaknesses right the way through the team!
Captain Zak`s form seems to be suffering once again from the responsibilities of the armband and it is his experience that we need in defence to help the likes of Knight-Percival and Ntlhe.
We have a number of different types of midfielders but not enough of them suit the diamond formation Fergie prefers to play.
McCann is good at making a pass but he is poor at the defensive side of things. Bostwick is completely the opposite. He can defend well but is unable to make that killer pass. It was also a complete mystery why Fergie employed Bostwick on the right of the diamond against Wolves! Why?
The forward position is also lacking. There has been a lot of flak since the defeat to Wolves heading in Tyrone Barnetts way. Is he worth the money Posh paid out for him? Does it really matter how much we paid for him. We need to play to his strengths and at the moment, we`re not doing that!
The other big question is who can partner him up front?
Lee Tomlin is simply not a forward and is one of the few players in the Posh squad who, on his day, can turn a match in Poshs favour. Surely he should be playing in a midfield position?
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing started up front with Barnett against Wolves and again, he is not a forward and is not the answer to our problem. He went missing so often during the game, it was like playing with 10 men. Added to the fact that when he was presented with a golden opportunity to shoot, he decided to hold the ball up and try to dribble round two players who managed to get back after he failed to take the shooting chance! Did he really want to score against his former team or did he want to try to show-off or was it simply he just didn`t know what to do!!
Emile Sinclair seems to have fallen down the pecking order after 16-year-old Jaanai Gordon-Hutton made his senior debut for Posh at the weekend. However Jaanai is NOT the short-term answer to our forward problems!
We need to look to get back to basics and if that means trying to play for a draw then so be it. This is against Fergies nature though and something he simply won`t do. Therefore he needs to try other things and this surely means bringing in help in the form of loanees and giving the likes of Kearns and Swanson their chance (if they`re fit!).
Fergie is good at talking and saying how well the team have trained, how they have come together as a strong group on the back of the adverse results and that he will pick the players up in time for the next match, but actions speak louder than words and Fergie needs to get things sorted out quickly before it is too late for us to save the season and before he turns into a miserable Lee Clark lookalike/soundalike!!!
UP THE POSH!
Follow me on Twitter: @mwl1967
Photos courtesy of www.theposhpics.com.
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