ALBION SUFFER DEMBELE ACHE
ASTUNNING breakaway goal from Siriki Dembele helped promotion-chasing Peterborough United beat Burton Albion and close to within two points of leaders Portsmouth.
Midfielder Joe Ward’s deflected opener after 29 minutes had the visitors in front before Dembele’s finish at the end of a swift counter-attack from a Burton corner doubled the advantage.
Albion halved the deficit on the hour mark through Jamie Allen.
Ward’s second goal of the season had a slice of fortune about it as his speculative long-range effort took a sizeable deflection to beat a wrong-footed Brad Collins in the Burton goal.
United showed their considerable counter-attacking threat just before the hour mark as Ward intercepted a stray pass from Jamie Allen to send the speedy Dembele through on goal, the former Grimsby man streaking around Collins to fire home.
Allen made amends for his error very quickly, firing high into the roof of the net to halve the deficit after Posh keeper Aaron Chapman could only parry John Brayford’s raking drive from 25 yards with Liam Boyce pouncing on the rebound to set Allen up.
Chapman ensured victory for Posh with excellent saves late on to deny David Templeton and Liam Boyce as Albion pushed for an equaliser.
“We showed two sides to our game today,” said Posh boss Steve Evans.
“For the first 60 minutes or so we are so much in control the only question being why it took us so long to get the second goal.
“It’s a brilliant breakaway goal involving Wardy and Siriki but then we go and give a silly goal away.
“We know Chappman should do better but where are our players following in?
“Then we had to show a different side to our game. This is a difficult place to come. It is a team full of players with Championship experience.
“It was a mixed perfor- mance. One of outstanding pleasure for the first hour and then we had to dig in, backed by our phenomenal support.”
Burton boss Nigel Clough was left to rue his side’s slow start on the back of two lengthy away trips in the last week.
“Once we got going after 20 minutes or so and we looked like we had got off the coach it was oneway traffic and we played some excellent stuff,” he said. “We started knocking it around and the pattern was set for the rest of the game. They were camped on the edge of their box for long periods. “Despite us creating enough chances to win a couple of games, we couldn’t quite finish them.”