eastlondonseagull
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Posh 0, Brighton 3 - Ravaged by the Seagulls - Peterborough United - Peterborough Today
Posh keeper Joe Lewis saves a penalty during Saturday's embarrassingly one-sided match at London Road.
By Alan Swann
Published on Mon Nov 01 09:45:06 GMT 2010
League 1 report: SEAGULLS dumped all over the Posh. That’s the sort of headline you’d love to read at a Tory party conference by the seaside, but not after a football match at London Road.
Make no mistake this bordered on the outright embarrassing. Brighton’s inventive, slick football was far too much to handle for a Posh side who were out-thought as well as comprehensively outplayed.
Indeed 3-0 in no way reflected the visitors’ domination. If Brighton had not been so obsessed with time-wasting, play-acting, acute gamesmanship and passing the ball tediously square, they could have run up a record score.
As it was they still saw a penalty saved and struck the crossbar twice as well as forcing Joe Lewis, a far better keeper when he’s busy, to make numerous high-class stops. And all while playing well within themselves.
Match details: League 1, London Road, 30/11/10
GOALS: Brighton - Barnes (16 mins & pen, 63 mins), Calderon (33 mins).
SENDING OFF: Posh - Boyd (serious foul play).
CAUTIONS: Posh - McCann (dissent), Lee (foul), Lewis (foul), Bennett (foul)
Brighton - Murray (foul).
REFEREE: G. Sutton (Lincoln) 4
ATTENDANCE: 10,116.
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It is to Posh’s credit that they refused to blame George Boyd’s first-half red card for their defeat. Brighton were a goal ahead and totally on top when the winger kicked out at Barnes, probably in retaliation, and was dismissed, apparently on the say-so of the fourth official.
Ashley Barnes had already headed in a free-kick before then. He and livewire Elliott Bennett had also been denied by the bravery and agility of Lewis in the first 10 minutes, a time when the writing was very much on the wall.
Brighton’s diamond midfield shape and passing ability was no surprise to Posh and yet they couldn’t have looked more bemused if they’d been asked to explain Newton’s Laws of Motion while solving a rubik’s cube.
Grant McCann and James Wesolowski didn’t have the legs to cope with so many midfielders and help from elsewhere was always too slow in arriving.
The movement up front stretched and teased Kelvin Langmead and Ryan Bennett to distraction, while full-backs Charlie Lee and Mark Little were so pre-occupied with runners arriving at pace, they had no time to join in the rare Posh attacks.
A surprise then that given the fluidity of their football Brighton won the match with three set-piece goals.
Annoying Spaniard Inigo Calderon tapped home the second before the break from a corner just seconds after writhing around in agony following a robust challenge from Lee. Calderon’s recovery was an apparent medical miracle and not at all cheating according to Brighton’s otherwise impressive boss Gus Poyet.
Barnes converted the third just past the hour mark from the penalty spot after Lewis had upended Bennett. Brighton’s Bennett had also tricked Posh’s Bennett into a reckless penalty area foul in the first half, but Lewis saved a spot-kick taken by Bennett.
Barnes also struck the crossbar twice and saw a curling effort clawed away by Lewis. Lewis also denied Radostin Kishishev and Glenn Murray before the match drifted into an inevitable conclusion.
It was an awful day for the Posh team and manager Gary Johnson has certainly had better days. His attempt to turn the day into a ‘Cup Final’ was well-intentioned, but as every away ground is probably like Wembley compared to Brighton’s embarrassing home facilities, it suited the visitors.
Johnson finally arrived for his post-match press conference at 6.35pm thus breaking Mark Wright’s club record by half an hour.
He didn’t look or speak like a man who had saved a grand (his pledge to pay the travel fares for fans if Posh had won in front of a 10,000 plus gate), but he did look and speak like a man who had just been talked out of resigning.
Johnson’s decision to withdraw Aaron Mclean as soon as Boyd was dismissed looked ill-judged. Mclean is one of the team’s leaders and if there was to be a half-chance you’d want it to fall to him.
As it was Posh only threatened when Brighton became bored by their own ball-hogging and gave possession away.
The best chance fell to substitute Chris Whelpdale late on, but he blazed over the crossbar.
It was a fitting end to to a dreadful 90 minutes.
Player ratings:
Joe Lewis: 9
An outstanding string of saves including a penalty kept the scoreline semi-respectable
Mark Little: 5
Had to spend all his time defending which doesn’t suit him
Charlie Lee: 4
Some reckless challenges could have led to a red card another day
Ryan Bennett: 5
Run ragged by Brighton’s pace and quality
Kelvin Langmead: 5
Pulled all over the place by the movement and speed of slick opposition
James Wesolowski: 4
Looked sluggish from the first whistle
Grant McCann: 4
You need your big players to come good when the heat is on, the captain failed
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing 5
Touch was poor throughout first-half, did better after the break
George Boyd: 4
Let everyone down with an out of character wild kick which led to early dismissal
Aaron Mclean: 5
Strangely sacrifced when Boyd was sent off
Craig Mackail-Smith: 5
Never stopped trying, never started to threaten
Substitutes:
Lee Frecklingon: (for Mclean, 30 mins) 5
Came on and went off again 20 minutes later
Chris Whelpdale: (for Frecklington, 51 mins).
Nana Ofori-Twumasi: (for Wesolowski, 66 mins).
Steve Collis: (not used).
Dave Hibbert: (not used).
Carl Piergianni: (not used).
Arron Davies: (not used).
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