I didn’t watch this match. I can’t believe I missed this match, it was on Sky for crying out loud and I still didn’t watch it. I was in Scarborough, in a pub, in fancy dress, on a stag do. I’m sorry, but to be fair I’ve never let my lack of match knowledge get in the way of a match report yet and I’m not going to start now.
There was a unusual amount of confidence leading up to the game, a real belief that Paul Taylor was going to be the man to fill the big hole left by Mackail-Smiths departure. As it is Posh now have 4 players who are currently outscoring Craig Mackail-Smith.
The game started much as the expert pundits were expecting, a Keith Andrews goal putting the visitors in the lead, but it wouldn’t last long. In the week Southampton put 5 past Ipswich, highlighting the inadequacies of their defence and if there’s one thing Posh like it’s a poor defence. Boyd particularly relished it and Ipswich had no answer to him, his ingenuity and creativity was the spark that allowed Paul Taylor to score in his first start for Posh. A beautiful strike from distance, hit with ferocity. Taylor added himself to Posh folklore before the ball even hit the net. Within 10 minutes Lee Tomlin made it 2. Tomlin is a player that promises so much, he has evident skill but has been guilty of wastefulness in the past. Today he put that Gremlin to bad with a fine display. He scored his 2nd just before half time, but not until Taylor had made it 3-1. Ipswich were struggling to keep up but worse was to come as Martin, arguably their best player on the pitch, was sent off for a nasty 2 footed challenge, then in the opening minutes of the second half they went down to 9.
It’s easy to see 2 sendings off and make assumptions about how Posh won, but the fact remains it was 4-1 with 22 players on the pitch and Posh were in a rampant mood. 7-1 was just inevitable, it’d have been 7-1 even if Ipswich had 15 men.
I’m rambling on now, so will draw it to a close. McCann scored a penalty (5-1), then scored another (6-1) before in the dying moments of the game McCann, Taylor and Tomlin lined up to see who could get a hat trick – the honour fell to Tomlin.
So, where do we go from here? 4 games in, 5th in the league. Is it time to get carried away or should we still be wary? Feel free to discuss this and much more besides in the forum.