Posh lose another battle in the summer phoney war

Friendly football is just a phoney war.

Matches against teams from different divisions offer few pointers towards real prospects in the serious stuff ahead.

So far Posh have beaten two teams they’d expect to beat and lost to two teams they’d expect to struggle against.

Championship side Ipswich came to the ABAX Stadium on Tuesday and exposed shortcomings in the Posh defensive work which, to be fair, had been identified by non-league Nuneaton a week earlier.

It’s unlikely many League One sides will have predatory strikers of the quality of David McGoldrick and Joe Garner, who claimed the three Tractor Boy goals here.

But League One clubs will have scouts who have spotted the open space afforded to Garner for his first goal, as well as the dreadful pass out from the back new firstchoice goalkeeper Jonathan Bond delivered which enabled the same player to grab a second goal six minutes later.

That completed a fine comeback from Mick McCarthy’s men who had trailed to a first Posh goal for Jack Marriott, a striker who started his career at Portman Road. Marriott was on hand to prod home from close range following great wideplay from Gwion Edwards.

Goal-scoring is currently not a problem. Organised defending most certainly is.

League One scouts will have spotted Posh’s defensive deficiencies.

Harry Anderson (centre) in the thick of the action against Ipswich.