ROBBO’S IN BLOOM AGAIN
Lou Reed: I’ll never have a game like that again.. after a real walk on the wild side
Reed Toney
POSH hero Louis Reed heard he had been voted man of the match as he loitered in the tunnel – after being sent off.
Following his thunderous shot to open the scoring, Reed left his team-mates to endure nine minutes of stoppage time after collecting his second yellow card before discovering he had won a bottle of champagne.
With respect, he is not the first person called Lou Reed to take a walk on the wild side.
But as he reflected on the craziest 20 minutes of his career, the Peterborough midfielder admitted: “Hopefully I’ve got a good few years left in the game, but I don’t think I’ll ever have another day like this one.”
Moments before Reed’s missile from 20 yards broke the deadlock, he had cleared the London Road end with a volley which landed somewhere near Wisbech.
Then he was sent packing for a foul on James Hesketh on the stroke of normal time, and as he waited anxiously backstage to find out if he had dropped his teammates in the deep end, he was cheered to the rafters after being nominated man of the match.
Reed said: “I heard it over the tannoy because I was stood halfway down the tunnel, making sure the ball was at the right end – away from our goal. I’ve never scored, had a red card and been voted man of the match before in my life.
“It was a strange game, and obviously it turned out topsyturvy for myself.
“I need to add more goals to my game, so I was pretty happy with that one
– but I was worried I had let the side down with my red card (right).
“We were under a REFEREE: Marc Edwards ATT: 9,872 lot of pressure at the end, and to be a man down made it even more difficult, but fortunately my teammates dug me out.” Lincoln were diplomatically restrained about a challenge by 10goal Posh striker Ivan Toney, the country’s leading scorer, straight from the kick-off after half-time which left Imps midfielder Michael O’Connor with a whiplash injury at the top of his spine.
O’Connor was forced to retire hurt after receiving treatment for seven minutes, and to rub salt in Lincoln’s wounds Toney clinched the points with an exquisite lob.
Toney claimed: “He has blocked me and I ran into the back of him. There was nothing intentional.”
A less charitable view is that Toney’s challenge wiped out one of the game’s best players in the first half and was worth at least a yellow card.
PETERBOROUGH: LINCOLN: MOTM LOUIS REED (PETERBOROUGH) CLARK ROBERTSON revelled in being Rotherham’s unlikely hero against his former club.
The defender was originally a sub. But an injury to Joe Mattock in the warm-up saw the Scot promoted to the Millers’ starting line-up at left-back.
And Robertson didn’t disappoint on his return to Bloomfield Road, setting up the opener for Michael Smith before scoring with three minutes to go as the Millers sprung a surprise.
“It was almost as if it was meant to be, coming here and scoring the winner,” admitted Robertson.
“When I walked back down the tunnel after the warm-up the gaffer Paul Warne said I was playing.
“I didn’t have time to think about it, I just went out and enjoyed it and it’s great we’ve got back-toback wins in the league.”
Having weathered a firsthalf storm, the Millers took an unexpected lead as Robertson headed Dan Barlaser’s free-kick into Smith’s path.
And his day got even better when he rifled home a left-foot screamer. “That’s BLACKPOOL ROTHERHAM 1 2 the best goal I’ve scored in my career!” said Robertson (below, celebrating).
“The desire to get back in the Championship is massive, we feel we should be up there challenging.
“Quite a few us played there last season and feel we can get back there.”
Dutch hitman Armand Gnanduillet bagged a consolation from the penalty spot for the Seasiders after Curtis Tilt had been felled. But Simon Grayson’s misfiring side failed to take some excellent chances and ultimately saw their fourgame unbeaten run ended.
Frustrated midfielder Matty Virtue admitted: “We dominated but we’ve come away with nothing.
“We’ve struggled scoring when we’re on top, that’s been our problem all season. We definitely need to work on that.”
Boss Grayson said: “When you’re on top in games you need to be clinical and take your chances.
“We just couldn’t get that ball over the line. That’s why it’s so frustrating.”