Steve Evans began life as Posh boss with a thumping win
THE Steve Evans era at Peterborough United began with a commanding victory over fellow play-off hopefuls Charlton Athletic, and the new Posh boss hopes to prove his own chairman wrong by securing promotion.
Andrew Hughes, a Marcus Maddison penalty and two late goals for Jack Marriott helped Peterborough leapfrog their League One opponents into seventh.
Michal Zyro had pulled a goal back for the visitors who saw Josh Magennis miss a penalty at 1-0.
The win meant a lot to Evans who lives in Peterborough and has been a supporter of the club.
He said: “We have a lot of talented players and we will win a lot of matches.
“I did not think we played really well, but they played with some energy and some real quality in the final third in the final minutes.
“The players showed a fantastic reaction to their goal. I told them they can take great credit.
“The chairman said to me promotion is going to be difficult, but he desperately wants it and I love to prove people wrong. We will give it everything we have.”
After home striker Omar Bogle had hit the near post from the right-hand side, the opening goal of the Evans reign came a minute before half-time when a cleared free-kick fell to Joe Ward on the left. The winger crossed to the back post where left-back Hughes side-footed in.
The match turned on 54 minutes with Peterborough's Liam Shephard penalised for a shove on Magennis, but the striker opened his body up too much and pushed the penalty went wide of the left-hand post.
Five minutes later Maddison was tripped by left-back Naby Sarr, with the winger sticking the subsequent penalty down the middle.
The visitors missed a glorious chance when Tariqe Fosu-Henry headed wide in front of goal, but they did pull one back when Zyro flicked in fellow substitute Ben Reeves' right-wing cross.
However, seven minutes later Marriott took Danny Lloyd's pass, turned his defender and fired in, before the striker headed in his 27th goal of the season after Jermaine Anderson's right-wing cross bounced invitingly to him in front of goal
Charlton boss Karl Robinson felt the scoreline flattered Peterborough.
He said: “Their forward players were better than ours but I thought we were the better team in the middle of the pitch.
“They had five chances and scored four goals. Jack Marriott was the difference.
“To get a striker like him you have to buy one in January, or buy one in the summer. “We need to get six points next week. We have to go and dust ourselves down, and if we play like that and take our chances we win.”