Cool Luke has Posh caretaker purring
IT’S been a marathon not a sprint for Peterborough striker Luke James after his first league goal in 26 games, but caretaker boss Dave Robertson believes the striker can start firing Posh up the league.
James’ header and Conor Washington’s late strike, 30 seconds after Peterborough goalkeeper Ben Alnwick had saved excellently from Curtis Main, made it four straight wins for Robertson.
And the temporary custodian, who has been told the job is his for the immediate future, backs James to keep on scoring.
“Luke is as hard-working a player as you will come across and that’s infectious,” said Robertson.
“Everyone loves that about him. Now he has that one goal he can kick on and become a big goalscorer for us.
“You could see what it meant to everyone in the celebrations.We are over the moon for him.”
Robertson added that James, a £500,000 summer signing from Hartlepool, had not been affected by his goal drought.
He said: “I’ve been telling him to concentrate on his positions and the rewards will come.
“The team performance as well was absolutely unbelievable.
“There were 2,400 of our fans here and we challenged the team to excite them and give them a game to remember.”
James opened the scoring by flicking in Jon Taylor’s right-wing cross at the near post.
Doncaster pushed for an equaliser with Alnwick palming away shots from Harry Forrester and Nathan Tyson.
Peterborough’s Gabriel Zakuani escaped what a looked a clear push on Jonson Clarke-Harris in the area before team-mate Michael Smith cleared a Forrester chip off his goal-line.
The visitors were a constant threat on the break and sealed the points in dramatic fashion.
Alnwick saved a closerange effort from Main with his legs and the ball was quickly cleared to Posh substitute Kyle Vassell who laid the ball off to Washington to fire in low.
Doncaster were celebrating a special day for injured club legend James Coppinger, but Rovers boss Paul Dickov admitted his side did not match the occasion.
“I’m really disappointed. We did not get started until they got their goal. They performed a lot better than us,” said Dickov. “We created three really good chances and their keeper made three really good saves.
“But you won’t get anything if you concede soft goals. As a team they possibly worked harder than us. But that performance from us has been few and far between.
“We looked really nervous. Maybe it was the big crowd or the pressure of being in sixth, but we are still right in the mix.”