Both sides went into this match following opening day 2-1 wins and with Posh boss Steve Evans expecting a tough match, a point would’ve been a good result. To come away with a four-one victory though was an excellent result.
The signs didn’t look good though when referee, Anthony Backhouse, awarded the home side a penalty following a dive by the home right-back but the comeback was started when the impressive Siriki Dembele won the ball on the edge of the penalty box to provide a pin-point cross to loanee Jason Cummings who headed his first goal in Posh colours.
After seeing the central midfield players score just one goal for Posh last season, new recruit Mark O’Hara from Dundee was next on the score sheet with his second goal in two matches. A freekick from Dembele to the back post was nodded across the area by Cummings to the head of O’Hara who powered the ball into the back of the net to give Posh the lead.
Posh weren’t finished then. Another freekick from Dembele from a similar position to the second goal saw the Grimsby Town recruit strike for goal. It looked as if the home keeper parried the ball from behind the goal line and although the referee or his assistant didn’t give the goal, Matty Godden was on hand to prod the ball in for his second goal of the season.
With a 3-1 half-time lead, Posh did the same as last week and put the game to bed, not by going all out to score more goals but to frustrate and stop the opposition from adding to their first-half goal.
Rochdale dominated possession but for all that possession, they created very little as Posh thwarted them time and again so much so that goalkeeper Aaron Chapman had very little to do. When Dale did manage to break through, Chapman was on hand to deny them.
After a very disciplined second 45 minutes, O’Hara caught a Dale defender on the half-way line with the ball rebounding towards transfer day deadline signing Ivan Toney who held off a challenge from behind to allow the ball run past both of them and allow O’Hara to run on to the ball and run unchallenged towards the goal before easily slotting the ball past the on-rushing goalkeeper to the delight of the 565 travelling Posh fans.
This was a tougher test than last weeks victory over Bristol Rovers and there will be much tougher matches ahead but for now, Posh have done well restricting the opposition to mainly shots from distance while spreading the goals between a few different players so far rather than just the one which we had last season.
Crown Oil Arena
Sky Bet League One
11/08/2018 3:00 pm
Attendance: 3693
Referee: Anthony Backhouse
| Rochdale | Peterborough United | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henderson (17) | Cummings (26), O'Hara (33, 90+4), Godden (45+3) | ||||||
| Lillis | Chapman | ||||||
| Rafferty | 50 | Naismith | |||||
| Delaney | Bennett | ||||||
| Henderson | Tafazolli | ||||||
| McGahey | 66 | Daniel | |||||
| Williams MJ | Ward | ||||||
| Camps | Woodyard | ||||||
| Done | 77 | O'Hara | |||||
| Perkins | Dembele | 85 | |||||
| Wilbraham | Godden | 92 | |||||
| Inman | Cummings | 72 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| McNulty | Tyler | ||||||
| Rathbone | Denton | ||||||
| Nthle | 77 | Yorwerth | 92 | ||||
| Cannon | 66 | Reed | |||||
| Moore | Cooper | ||||||
| Adshead | Cooke | 85 | |||||
| Andrew | 50 | Toney | 72 | ||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 15 | Goal attempts | 14 |
| 4 | On Target | 9 |
| 4 | Corners | 4 |
| 10 | Fouls | 9 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 62 | % | 38 |