The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Fergie: It’s a tough task
Lee Tomlin was supposed to the saviour, the man to breathe exciting life into a faltering promotion push.
But, the ballyhoo which surrounded his return to Posh concentrated on his undoubted gifts rather than the ill discipline that blighted the end of his time at London Road.
Tomlin suffered two red cards in his last three Posh matches before he was despatched to Middlesbrough andlastweekendhesetanew club record by racking up sending-off number seven.
He might have been a tad unlucky against Plymouth as he wasn’t helped by a ludicrous back flop to the floor by powerful centre-back Ryan Edwards after trying to separate the defender from Ivan Toney and the sheer uselessness of referee Peter Wright whose inconsistency in judging cautionable offences was a sight to behold.
But, and there’s always a but with Tomlin, why he wanted to get involved in a messy incident two minutes after collecting a first yellow card is anyone’s guess. His dismissal just before the break threw manager Darren Ferguson’s plans for the second half of a tight game into disarray.
The Posh boss had been frustrated by his team’s attempt to play cohesive football within a midfield diamond formation and was ready to change personnel and shape against a team of limited ability.
The change of shape to a wing-back system still happened, but the loss of a player restricted the opportunity to get forward.
Posh still defended well enough to merit at least a point, but three minutes from time a weak clearance fell kindly to in-form midfielder Ruben Lameiras whose finish was classier than the rest of the match.
Posh had a couple of decent chances in the first-half as Ivan Toney’s freekick was well saved and Siriki Dembele latched onto Tomlin’s cute pass, went round the goalkeeper, but found the scoring angle too acute.
Ferguson’s homecoming ended rather unhappily.
Posh did enough to merit a draw.