CITY 1 PETERBOROUGH UNITED 1
Travelling from our Huntingdon home up the A1, we joined the A47 Peterborough to Leicester road at Wansford and immediately thought we were on our way to a City away game with all the Peterborough cars festooned with their blue and white favours, with a couple of cars seeing our “On the road with Leicester City” sticker in the rear window. Car horns filled the air!
On arrival at the Walkers, ready to collect our Adult ticket in exchange for our Grandson’s Under 12 season ticket (no additional cost, excellent idea City), the white ticket collection van could not be found. Asking a nearby steward we were informed “It’s been nicked!” so had to queue at the Sports Bar entrance. With 5 minutes to go before the kick off the crowd looked rather sparse but late arrivals ended with 21,485.
Could City keep their one hundred per cent winning home run this term going? Or would Peterborough gain their first victory of the campaign for Darran Ferguson’s promoted team, the strain already telling on young Fergie’s face on the telly!
The Tannoy announced Nigel Pearson’s team for the match with Paul Gallagher coming in on the left for Lloyd Dyer after the good win against Blackpool last Saturday, the bench looking capable of beating any Championship team at 7-a-side. With the toss won, the Posh decided to kick towards their own supporters in the first half, and was this the reason the city seemed to start the game decidedly out of sorts?
As per the Blackpool game, both sides went on the attack from the kick-off, but in the first 15 minutes, the Posh made all the running and constructed several clear shooting chances. If their attack of McLean and Mackail-Smith, plus Boyd and Frecklington had put on their shooting boots as they did last season in Division One, then City would have been 2 or 3 behind, but luckily their shots didn’t trouble Chris Weald.
Steve Howard flicked on a high ball, found Dany N’Guessan who tried to put Matt Fryatt in but his final pass was too strong. Infact City’s passing was not good and Gallagher seemed to be suffering, even when he swapped wings with N’Guessan, and Oakley and Wellens were not able to get going in the middle of the park. Fryatt was struggling up front and was caught off-side several times.
After 25 minutes, good work on the left by N’Guessan forced a corner and then Wellens had a rare shot that went wide. The visitor’s McLean then shot into the side netting when well placed.
Then a turning point in the game when, in the 31st minute, a speculative ball into City’s penalty area saw Wayne Brown challenging the ball with McLean. After a fierce tussle, the end result was Referee Booth pointing to the spot for a penalty, the supporters around me shouting “Never!”. George Boyd, who Fergie Senior states has a great future in the game, fired home past Weale for the opener, perhaps not a surprise to the Foxes faithful.
Falling behind seemed to wake the City players up and in the next 2 minutes, a Howard header was cleared and the same player set up Fryatt who went clean through but his net splitting shot from 10 yards was wide as the home supporters all went up expecting the equaliser.
Gallagher then started to justify his fee when in the 36th minute he shot wide, then 3 minutes later, the same player found space just outside the box, but his curling shot towards the top right corner was superbly turned round the post by England’s Under 21 ‘keeper Joe Lewis.
Wellens then lost the ball well inside the Peterborough half and 4 Posh players advanced on the City area with only one City defender in attendance. Luckily the Posh forward choosed the wrong option and eventually the ball was cleared much to the relief of the City faithful. Neilsen then headed across the Peterborough box, Lewis saving, as the half ended with a yellow card for Oakley.
City’s manager, seeing the first half performance, made 2 changes at the interval, bringing on Aleksander Tunchev for the struggling Wayne Brown and Andy King for N’Guessan, and the desired effect was immediate. A Gallagher shot was cleared to the far post and as Neilsen tried to force the ball back into the danger area, Posh’s Tom William’s was seen to handle the ball by the referee who immediately awarded City a Penalty kick, easily converted by Matt Fryatt to Lewis’s right.
City’s formation seemed to be 4-3-1-2, with Gallagher playing behind the front duo with Wellens on the left and the same player was starting to have a big influence on the game with some deft touches and accurate passes to his colleagues, although the Posh should have taken the lead from a corner when defender Zakuani rose unchallenged above everyone to head the ball wide when well placed.
Tunchev and Whelpdale then went up for the ball with the resulting clash of heads meaning both sides reduced to 10 men, luckily only Tunchev returned with head bandaged and his undoubted class was evident to the end.
It was mostly City in the last 20 minutes with Weale untroubled although Mackail-Smith shot just wide with 15 minutes to go. Neilsen was seeing a lot of the ball on the right and a cross was met by Fryatt but his shot was deflected wide. Howard had several headers but could not turn any of them into clearcut chances.
With 10 minutes to go, Pearson withdrew Fryatt who was replaced by the pacy Waghorn who tried to inspire in the right corners of the pitch as Wellens tried hard to set up his forwards. The Posh players were getting desparate and several were yellow carded for late challenges by the over fussy referee which stopped the continuity of the game.
Late on, a Neilson long throw found Howard whose header caused panic in the away sides defence but the ball was cleared. City pushed hard for the winner, but King nearly gave away a point when he lost the ball and the resultant shot just went past the right hand post much to the City fans relief.
In the end probably a fair result, confirmed by Nigel Pearson, with Peterborough regretting the many chances early in the game, the Foxes then having chances but unable to convert any of them. After 7 games only 7 goals but the defence only allowing 5 in, but hopefully it will not be a repeat of 2 seasons ago when a lack of goals cost us dearly.
City slip to 7th but with 12 points and they have and an identical record to the other 4 teams on 12 points, including Watford (6th) who we visit this coming Saturday, our first away win of the season would be just great to keep us in the hunt.
CITY: Weale, Neilson, Hobbs, Brown (Tunchev 46), Berner, N’Guessan (King 46), Oakley, Wellens, Gallagher, Fryatt (Waghorn 80), Howard. Subs not used: McGivern, Dyer, Logan, Adams.
PETERBOROUGH: Lewis, Martin, Williams, Morgan, Zakuani, Whelpdale, Frecklington, Diagouraga, Boyd, McClean, Mackail-Smith. Subs: Day, McKeown, Keates, Coutts, Rowe, Batt, Pearce.
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation