The game was decided early in the first half when Lee Frecklington labelled Posh bad boys by pushing Henri Lansbury in the area. West Ham seemed unsure who would take the penalty before Mark Noble declared “I’m your man” and slotted the ball home. Much of the rest of the game was fruitless, several fans dropping off and asking neighbours to wake me up before the go go. Posh battled on but as one fan shouted “where did your heart go?”, wherever it went they’ll be lamenting a missed point in Club Tropicana tonight.

Emile Sinclair controlled a Lee Tomlin pass expertly, the ball sticking to his foot as if he was some kind of football based Magneto. Sinclairs goal vindicated Ferguson’s decision to make Taylor an X-Man (I’m sorry). Posh dominated the opening half with some fine attacking football. McCann, Bennett and Sinclair all came close only for Burnley to shout “You Shall Not Pass” (it gets worse), until on 38 minutes Sinclair won the ball and shot past Lee Grant who must have felt like he was being attacked by rats in Room 101….. arse, that was John Hurt wasn’t it? What else was Ian McKellen in? Scandal, yes wait a minute – I can rescue this……one thing Burnley didn’t do was Keel(er) over with Keith Treacy pulling one back just before the half time break.

During the break Sir Ian may have thought back to his first TV role in David Copperfield, but as good a magician he was even he could not have got Burnley a point such was Posh’s industrious play. Ryan Bennett, being watched by Stuart Pearce, particularly excelled and his fine play combined with a sterling performance by Paul Jones in goal kept Burnley at bay but for the most part Posh continued to dominate with an award winning performance. McKellen’s own major award came in his portrayal of Czar Nicolas II in Rasputin, as in Ra Ra Rasputin, well today Posh celebrated 3 points and the arrival of their own Boney Em.

The truth of the matter is that we put out our best available XI and were beaten by a better team. We deserved to go out by dint of not being as good as Middlesbrough on the night and to be fair the Carling Cup is a good competition giving smaller teams the chance to host big ones (see Exeter V Liverpool) that has served us well over the years.

So what went wrong? Some say we didn’t seem up for it, lacked fitness. Others point out how Middlesbrough played us at our own game, pressed us and didn’t give us a moments peace. Tactically, it seems, they got the measure of us. All we can do is hope and pray that the Ipswich’s outnumber the Middlesbroughs in the Championship or that we somehow develop a crafty Plan B for when the “Score lots of goals” tactic isn’t working.

Either way we need to prove on Saturday, at Brighton, that the Ipswich result wasn’t a flash in the pan and give them a bloody good game – If only to show a certain striker that we’re over him.

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.

Anyway, we played them in a game of Football. They took an early lead via Trotter after dominating the first half. Posh started stronger in the second but were hit by a Hamer Bouazza goal after 55 minutes. Most teams would have given up there and then, but Posh still possess a never say die attitude and after an excellent 10 minute spell Lee Frecklington pulled one back. Millwall were shell shocked and 3 minutes later could only watch as Paul Taylor scored a 30 yard screamer. Millwall regrouped and spent the last 15 minutes bombarding the Posh goal, Paul Jones produced a string of fine saves to keep them at bay and defend a valuable away point.

Posh put in a fine performance against a team who were troubling the Premier Leagues finest last season. The key difference between the 2 sides was the finishing prowess of Blackpools geriatric centre forward. Buoyed by the new Fifa directive to allow mobility scooters and keen to get his goal bonus (one pack of Werthers per goal), Kevin Phillips struck twice to put Posh 2 down. George Boyd managed to grab a late consolation goal following some dubious defending but all in all it was a game Posh might have felt they could have salvaged something from.

This may well prove to be the most important match of the season. Part of the problem 2 years ago was a slow start which quickly knocked the players self-belief and sent us to a spiral of despair. This time we’re off flying and might just string a few results together….. of course my well trained Posh supporting brain says we’ll probably stall our momentum by losing to Stevenage in the league cup on Tuesday. Who knows what will happen? That’s part of the joy of following Posh.

Posh tore into Huddersfield from the off and only a late challenge prevented CMS from opening the scoring as his shot was deflected onto the post and out for a corner with Bennett stranded.  CMS ended the half with a similar opportunity but this time he tried to get his shot away early and only succeeded in sending his effort wide when clean through.

Huddersfield dominated possession in the second half and Ward skinned Basey before crashing a shot against Jones’s crossbar, it was to be their best chance.  Posh were struggling to gain possession and CMS cut a lonely figure at the top end of the pitch as he waited in vain for a touch of any sort.

There was tough tackling from both sides but Kay can count himself lucky not to have seen red when he chopped down CMS as he tore through the centre of the Huddersfield defence.  On 78 minutes Boyd zipped into the penalty, was tripped and sent sprawling, the ref called it correctly and awarded Posh a free-kick outside the area.  McCann’s fizzing effort met the head of the otherwise anonymous Tommy Rowe and the ball was past Bennett in a flash, 1-0.

Ninety seconds later Huddersfield panicked at the back and allowed Boyd to slide a ball to the unmarked CMS on the edge of the area.  His shot took a deflection and the ball spun wickedly into the far corner for 2-0.  Posh fans celebrated deliriously, but their side wasn’t finished.  On 85 minutes another free-kick on “McCann Corner” (as that part of OT will be forever known) allowed the Irishman to crown an excellent personal performance by curling the ball into the top corner, 3-0.

Cue pandemonium and joy in the Posh end.  Cue mass evacuation of the Huddersfield end.  Cue Darren releasing God-knows how much tension as he ran onto the pitch punching the air.

Posh’s proud play-off final record remains intact.

Posh were poor in the first leg.  They had avoided the larger goal deficit that they deserved.  Now the team was out to make amends.  Every single player on the pitch attacked their role with determination and enthusiasm rarely seen since the days of Chris Turner’s heroes.  This squad has considerably more skill but tonight they fought for every ball and pressured MKD out of the tie.

McCann’s free kick on 11 minutes took the keeper by surprise as it bounced past his near post.  CMS played a one-two off a desperate Chadwick on 54 minutes and the job was done.  MKD had no answer, no guts and no player capable of matching the sheer will to win of their Posh opponents.

MKD had Posh on the ground with their boots firmly pressed on the neck, it was all over.  Except MKD bizarrely eased the pressure and began to stroke the ball around and enjoy their crowd shouting ole.  Big mistake.

Little set off on one of his infamous “runaway defender” routines and ended up falling over his own bambi legs.  Fortunately the ref decided he’d been tripped inside the box and awarded a penalty.  His lino confirmed there were no defenders between Little and the goal and promptly showed a red card.

McCann slotted home the 81st minute ‘get out of jail card.’