Peterborough 3 Royals 2

Ben Steele • Published 19 Sep 2009 14:17 4 Comments

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GEORGE Boyd's stunning last minute winner capped a terrific Peterborough fightback as the Royals squandered a two-goal half-time advantage.

First half goals from Gylfi Sigurdsson and Simon Church seemed to have put Brendan Rodgers's side well in control.

But Craig Mackail-Smith and Aaron McLean levelled things up within 10 minutes of the start of the second half.

And Boyd's late flick completed the turnaround to leave Royals stunned.

Full-time: Well, where did that come from. Posh mount a stunning second half fightback to secure their first win of the season, and deliver another blow to the Royals. They looked so comfortable in the first half, you could not see anything except an away win. But when has football ever been predictable!

90 + 3 mins: Royals nearly snatch back a point, but Lewis does brilliantly to turn aside Hunt's shot. From the resulting corner though Kebe heads wide of an open net as Lewis flails at thin air. Last chance?

90 mins GOAL: The turnaround is complete. Posh move the ball around nicely to create space for Martin on the right. His low ball in is superbly flicked home by Boyd, with his back to goal. A strike worthy of winning a thrilling clash, even if it means heartache for the Royals.

84 mins: Closest we've had to a winner as Craig Morgan shoots straight at Federici after a scramble in the area.

78 mins: Rodgers make his last change as Kebe replaces Gunnarsson.

75 mins: End to end stuff. First Rasiak heads Royals best chance of the half over the bar. Then at the other end, Frecklington and McLean are both denied by last ditch blocks. Tricky to pick a winner at the moment.

70 mins: Pearce picks up a booking for tucking back the rampant Mackail-Smith. Royals bring on Hunt for Church, and at the same time Posh replace Tom Williams with Jamie Day.

66 mins: I was about to say it had all calmed down after that flurry of action. But then Mackail-Smith fired into life again and Federici had to be at his best to tip it onto his right hand post.

57 mins: Rodgers reacts to his side's slovenly start to the second period, bringing on Karacan for Matejovsky.

55 mins GOAL: It had been coming. Matejovsky lost the ball on the left, and George Boyd made a stunning break through the middle. He timed his pass to McLean to perfection and Federici could do nothing to stop his thunderous drive at the near post. Game on!

51 mins: All Peterborough at the moment. Federici forced into three good saves in the space of three minutes as the hosts hunt an equaliser. Mackail-Smith, twice and Frecklington the men denied.

48 mins GOAL: That paid instant dividends. Federici had just been forced into a top drawer save from Aaron McLean, when the resulting corner found its way past the Aussie. Mackail-Smith seemed happy to claim it but, I think it may have been diverted in by a combination of Pearce and O'Dea.

Well Darren Ferguson obviously wasn't too happy with his side's first half display. Double substitution for Posh with Dean Keates and Lee Frecklington coming on for Toumani Diagouraga and Chris Whelpdale. All the same for Royals as you might expect

Half-time: Well that was just about a perfect 45 minutes for Brendan Rodgers' side. They've knocked the ball about really well, thoroughly deserved their goals and not looked in an awful lot of trouble at the back. Don't think the boss can really ask for more. Only downside is he has kept his unfortunate dark blue tank top on throughout the first half. He can swap seats with me if he's feeling a bit chilly...

43 mins: Just what Church needed, the freedom of the Posh penalty area six yards out. And he nearly makes it three a minute later but just fails to get on the end of Bertrand's ball in after a terrific flowing move.

41 mins GOAL: They can do better than that. Bertrand brought down on the left. Sigurdsson in charge of the free-kicks now sends in another cracking delivery that Church heads in from six yards for his first Royals' goal.

39 mins: Another good chance for the home side. Tom Williams fine ball in from the left is headed over by Craig Mackail-Smith. Royals need to keep this lead until the break.

34 mins: Sort of commentator's curse in reverse there - an opinion bringing good news rather than bad. That was Sigurdsson's second goal of the season, and the first was a similarly spectacular effort against Burton in the Carling Cup. Nearly 2-0 stright after but Rasiak shot straight at Lewis after picking up a loose ball.

30 mins GOAL: And there you go. Sigurdsson is brought down by Coutts 25 yards out. The young Icelander promptly picked himself up and curled his free-kick beyond Joe Lewis' despairing dive into the right hand corner. Deserved I'd say.

27 mins: You can tell Royals are struggling in front of goal. They're playing some nice stuff until the final third but seem to be a bit panicky when a chance presents itself. Just a bit of composure needed...

21 mins: Posh's first good chance. Russell Martin's cross into the box is deflected high into the air. Federici opts to try and claim it but is beaten in a hard challenge by Chris Whelpdale. His header looks poised to roll into the net, but Cummings hacks it off the line. The Aussie stopper took a bit of a clout there, but he's made of strong stuff and is back on his feet soon.

15 mins: First yellow card of the afternoon as Howard is booked for a clumsy tackle on George Boyd as Peterborough looked to break.

11 mins: Matejovsky's looked particularly bright in the first 10 minutes. Twice in the space of a minute the Czech found space on the edge of the box only to shoot wide.

9 mins: Promising from the Royals, Matejovsky releasing Cummings down the right. His ball in found Sigurdsson but his close range effort hit his team-mate Rasiak and bounced harmlessly wide.

6 mins: After a bright start from the hosts, Royals are starting to get a foothold in the game, although Sigurdsson and Howard have both wasted free-kicks in promising positions

Here come the two teams, Reading wearing their white and green away kit, looking very much like the carrier bags of the supermarket emblazoned across the front of their shirts.

And right on cue, here we are:

Rodgers makes two changes to the starting line-up that went down 1-0 to Cardiff on Wednesday, with Jem Karacan and Noel Hunt dropping to the bench. Simon Church and Brynjar Gunnarsson are the men to return.

For Posh Paul Coutts comes in for Lee Frecklington in their only change.

Referee Chris Sarginson may well be the most nervous man out there - he takes charge of his first Championship game.

Royals: Federici, Cummings, O'Dea, Pearce, Bertrand, Howard, Gunnarsson, Matejovsky, Sigurdsson, Church, Rasiak. Subs: Hamer, Cisse, Mills, Hunt, Kebe, Ingimarsson, Karacan.

Peterboro': Lewis, Martin, Williams, Morgan, Zakuani, Boyd, Diagouraga, Whelpdale, Coutts, McLean, Mackail-Smith. Subs: Frecklington, Keates, McKeown, Rowe, Pearce, Day, Batt.

Attendance 8,521.

Hello, good afternoon and welcome along to London Road, Peterborough as Brendan Rodgers' Royals look to get back to winning ways after a couple of disappointing displays at the Mad Stad.

It's a very pleasant afternoon up here - especially outside the confines of the greenhouse-like press box. I'm glad this game wasn't played in August....

We should have the teams for you in a couple of moments.

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

Paul
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Sep 19, 13:55
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Time for Church to deliver......we need to win this game.

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Paul
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Sep 19, 14:14
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Time for Church to deliver......we need to win this game.

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Megs
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Sep 20, 09:04
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Well at least you can take two positives out of this game and RFC's start to the season.."A" we don't have too see Madejski's face on the box.. never while Reading are struggling ?? "B" Saved a bomb on not buying Tommy Smith.. what a dud he turned out to be. serves Pompey right..They sent us down by not beating Fulham at home..tossers!!

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carlos
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Sep 20, 09:16
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Good job we saved that money we'll need it in league 1 next season.

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