Just got back, haven't bothered to read through so apologies if I repeat...
First half, cracking, good game of footy to watch and whilst we weren't as good as we have been (Kasim and Luongo are not playing like they did at the start of the season), we were still miles better than the last game I went to (fucking Oldham). Best team we could have put out under the circumstances, played very well, Posh looked poor. Should have had a penalty obviously, but that's probably been said over 9000 times so I won't go into it.
What I will go into is the fucking
appalling refereeing on display in the rest of the match. Even in comparison to the stuff we have to put up with week in week out, tonights offering was one of the worst refereed games I've ever seen.
-Advantage? Never heard of it.
-Seeing which player touched the ball last before it went out? Nah, fuck it, let's just give it to Peterborough, they're losing...
-Player gets stamped on repeatedly after a corner? Eh, give the free kick against him, it's probably his fault, giving a penalty would be too much like hard work.
-Booking for real offences instead of petty things just to assert your authority because you're a tiny tiny man who obviously has feelings of inadequacy in the crotch department? You get the jist...
Fucking useless, and the linesmen were just as bad. Should be happy with a job well done when the brown envelope stuffed with cash falls through their letterboxes tomorrow.
Back to the football, and whilst we should have been two/three up by half time (Pritchard missed a couple of opportunities to put people through on goal and shot instead, not surprising with the Sky cameras there, and also missed a free kick in the first half he normally would have buried from that distance), I was happy at the break, hoping we'd come back out firing and score another to kill the game off.
Whilst we didn't park the bus in the same way that I heard some people moaning about on Radio Wiltshire driving home, the attacking threat was a little diminished in the second half- partly because Posh had had time to regroup.
Danny N'Guessan would have got my MoM tonight- he ran his balls off, and was obviously knackered by the 65th/70th minute. Cooper had no real options to replace him when he was forced to take him off, and I can understand why he waited. Gladwin should have gone into the middle instead though and pushed another player forward (Pritch with Luongo/Thompson on the Wing maybe?), and he had absolutely no time to get into the pace of the game before he was being booed by the usual cunts.
Posh's goal, for those of you radio-bound tonight, came about because Murphy was trapped by a Posh player just outside of the box and so passed it back to Kasim and Luongo who were coming towards him. The pair of them watched it roll past each other and Posh picked it up and stuck it in the back of the net. Not Murphy's fault IMHO as he was being quite heavily molested.
Penalties... Oh don't talk to me about penalties. I have decided after tonight and Brentford to never watch them ever again. Anyone who thinks Reis is shit because he missed one penalty can go and do one. Massimo should have buried his, unfair to lump all the blame on Reis. Coops said post-match that all the players volunteered, so Reis was unfortunate.
Stupid competition anyway...
I stick by my '
Win JPT, not quite make the playoffs' prediction from earlier in the season, but will be pleasantly surprised if we do make the playoffs. Let's just kill off games when we're in the ascendancy from now please, okay boys?
EDIT: Oh, forgot to say, Cooper's a far better manager than people give him credit for and whilst we should not be deferential to him we should be fucking happy we have him and are still in with a shout of the playoffs instead of being like, oh I don't know, Bristol City, a club with much bigger resources and spending power who expected to ping straight back up but are still fighting relegation. I for one am more than happy with what he's done and want him to stay.
I like his attitude on the radio, and he doesn't make any bones about the fact he's not Ranger's biggest fan. Anyone remember how Jed used to say Ranger behaved better if you kicked him in the arse from time to time? Cooper may well be like he is about Ranger because of that.
