Throughout the season, Vital Posh follow the ramblings of a Posh fan after each match?read what he has to say about the latest match.
Peterborough United 2 – 1 Colchester United
Location: ABAX Stadium
Date: 15th August, 2015
Attendance: 5,339
The starting XI team announcement yesterday was met with a bit of disappointment but at the same time an understanding of the long term benefit. I`m talking of course about Jack Collison dropping to the substitutes bench.
Having been out of action for all of last season, Posh took a gamble when signing him and they obviously want to get the best out of him but they have to be careful with his recovery and fitness. Having played the whole of the match last Tuesday, Posh decided to rest Collison with the aim of starting him next Tuesday in the tough match against Sheffield United.
Collison came on in the 70th minute but he so nearly came on, along with Jon Taylor, forty minutes earlier!
For the first 30 minutes of the match Posh were second best all over the pitch. Colchester have improved greatly on their team from last season and will cause many teams problems this term. They played the ball well, passed it around, bossed the midfield and deservedly took the lead on 30 minutes.
No one could complain about the U`s taking the lead but every Posh fan could complain about the lack of movement by every single Posh player! Was that because the U`s were better at closing us down when we had the ball or was it because we think we should have the right to be able to play the ball around without being tackled and as such we don`t need to move into space?
Posh were so poor that Robbo was about to bring Collison and Taylor on just after the visitors scored until, that is, the spectacular if somewhat lucky cross-cum-shot from Marcus Maddison found the back of the net. The equalising goal saw both Taylor and Collison park their backsides back on the bench.
Maddison obviously liked his goal, he thought he`d take another pot-shot, this time from a central position just inside the U`s half which narrowly went over the top. He wasn`t to be denied though as he got his second goal just three minutes after the first.
Those two Maddison goals sparked Posh into life but why did it have to take a goal to get Posh moving, pressing, chasing? Had Maddison not scored, what would`ve happened? Yes, we would`ve seen the early arrival of Collison but there`s no telling that changes in personnel on the pitch would make others start moving and being less static.
Yet again there were positives and negatives you can take away from the match.
I`ve already mentioned most of the negatives such as lack of movement and closing down of the opposition but you can also add an injury to right-back Tobi Adebayo-Rowling [pictured below] who went off injured in the first half leaving Posh with no recognised fit right-back.
Michael Bostwick is also having a disappointing start to the campaign and was virtually anonymous in this match. Add to that, Kgosi Ntlhe often went AWOL from his left-back position and the U`s goal was scored when he was nearly our furthest player up the pitch! Another time the U`s attacked down the Posh left, Ntlhe was spotted way over on the right wing!!
The final negative is the lack of goals from Joe Gormley which must also be playing on his mind. Yet again, he had a clear cut chance to open his Football League scoring account but failed to get the ball on target! I don`t think there was anyone in the ground that wasn`t wondering why he wasn`t replaced! We have seen in pre-season that he knows where the goal is so hopefully it`s just a matter of time before he starts scoring and scores regularly.
Enough of the negatives, let`s stay positive and look at what we were good at. Apart from Maddison`s goals, I can hear some of you saying what positives were there!!
Well, Marcus Maddison as a whole. There was very little of the usual diving that we`ve come to expect from him and once he scored the opener for Posh, his form really kicked on and he put in a good display. He was also tracking back defensively to help out Ntlhe?oh wait, Ntlhe was often missing from the left-back position!
I`m not a fan of Conor Washington, but he got better as the game went on and caused the U`s backline no end of problems. He had chances to wrap the game up but was unfortunate not to put the ball away. Sometimes he`s too greedy though as one effort [pictured above] was spurned over the top of the goal when there were three players lining up to tap the ball in to the net! This may sound negative, but at least he`s getting the chances but he just needs to make the right choice when it comes to shooting or passing.
Harry Anderson also had a reasonable game but not as effective as he was on Tuesday. Jack Collison just oozed class again in his 20 minute appearance while Gaby Zakuani was his usual self but what a player we have on loan.
Alex Davey, although he is only 20, put in another outstanding performance mopping everything up that came in his direction. Even when he reverted to right-back, he was rarely troubled. We also found out that he has got a long throw which I think surprised his fellow Posh players as well during the match! If anything has come out of the first three matches, it is that Posh must sign Davey up for the remainder of the season. I doubt we`d be able to sign him permanently, but if that is at all possible, I`d hope Darragh MacAnthony could make it happen!
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