Dynamo complete double over Peterborough Sports
EVOSTIK PREMIER LEAGUE
DIVISION ONE SOUTH PETERBOROUGH SPORTS 1 LOUGHBOROUGH DYNAMO 2 LOUGHBOROUGH Dynamo came away from the club’s first visit to league newcomers Peterborough Sports with a 2-1 win, completing their first double of the season.
Peterborough may well be disappointed with not taking something out of the game after their first half performance, but as the match progressed Dynamo’s back four held firm.
New signing and debutant Luke Foster, a centre back with experience of playing in the Football League with Preston North End and Stevenage, made his presence felt as the match progressed.
The match suffered with a stopstart feel, due to a floodlight failure in both the first half and second half. Luckily for Dynamo, the match was able to be completed on the night.
Dynamo hit the visitors early by taking the lead in the fifth minute. A Dynamo throw in caught the home defence, who appeared to haver switched off, and Alistair Smith ran through to get on the end of the throw in and volley Dynamo’s opening goal.
Peterborough tried to draw level quickly and put Dynamo under the cosh for large periods of the first half. Samuel Hill headed just over the Dynamo from a corner in the eighth minute, which was followed shortly by three successive corners for Peterborough, from the second of which Mark Jones’s shot was cleared off the line by Danny Gordon.
Minutes later Lewis Hilliard’s low shot direct from a free kick was saved to his right by Taylor. A low ball from the Peterborough left in the 27th minute went straight across the Dynamo goal without players from either side managing to get a touch.
After 34 minutes the floodlights went off for the first time, and when the lights came on it was Dynamo who was first to threaten, Peterborough goalkeeper Lewis Moat just beat Smith to a through ball.
Peterborough went straight down the pitch and Macleod’s low long range shot went just wide of Taylor’s goal.
The final goalmouth action was in the Peterborough penalty area, Louis Keenan volleying just over from close in from a Dynamo free kick. However, Peterborough could feel themselves unfortunate to be trailing at half time.
Two minutes after the restart the floodlights failed for a second time. When they came back on it was Dynamo who was first to threaten, and Smith’s centre from the left in the 51st minute was met by Tolani Omotola, the Dynamo number 9’s looping header going over Moat to double Dynamo’s lead.
This gave Dynamo a real confidence boost, and the visitors experienced their best spell of the game after this goal, looking the better side. But Peterborough were not to be outdone, and in the 63rd minute the ball went back and forth across the Dynamo penalty area before Taylor turned the ball for a corner. From the kick a Peterborough player went down under pressure in the penalty area, Referee Josh Crofts waving away Peterborough appeals for a penalty.
In the 69th minute a centre from the Dynamo left eluded the home defence, Omotola getting on the end of the centre to head just over. Two minutes later Taylor made a good save, turning substitute Lewis Webb’s low shot away.
Peterborough pulled a goal back in the 73rd minute when Macleod turned in and drove a low shot beyond Taylor. Sports was buoyed by this, but it was Dynamo who threatened next, when substitute Sam Thorpe found Luke Smithson, who’s cross shot was deflected just wide for a corner by a defender’s lunging leg.
The 84th minute saw Joshua Moreman put a header just wide of Taylor’s right hand post. This was the final chance of the game, Peterborough pushing for an equaliser, but the Dynamo defence held firm for a valuable win.
After the match Dynamo Manager Peter Ward said “It was really good three points. Our concentration could have been affected by the two floodlight stoppages which interrupted the flow of the game, but we didn’t let it. At times you have to win ugly, for want of a better expression, and this was the case here.”