Magic man Maddison steers Posh to victory

Marcus Maddison was magic and Matt Godden ended his goal-drought as Posh won a fixture described as ‘a mustwin’ game by manager Darren Ferguson.

Maddison and Godden both scored twice to help Posh close in on a place in the play-offs.

Maddison was superb throughout the 90 minutes, assisting both of Godden’s goals and terrorising the visitors’ backline from the start.

Godden hadn’t scored since December 15 but struck twice inside 10 minutes. A Ryan Tafazolli own goal six minutes later brought the stunned visitors back into the match before Maddison struck with a free-kick.

A mistake from goalkeeper Conor O’Malley allowed Matt Bloomfield to reduce the deficit again, but Maddison sealed the win with his fifth goal of the season.

Posh made three changes from the side that lost 2-1 against Shrewsbury, with Godden replacing the suspended Ivan Toney, Daniel Lafferty coming in for Tyler Denton at left-back and Callum Cooke replacing Kyle Dempsey in the centre of midfield.

A change of personnel also saw a change of formation with three at the back and Maddison and Lee Tomlin playing just off Godden in a 3-4-2-1 formation.

The new setup seemed to bring the best out of the front men as a thrilling first-half saw Posh score three great goals, but only go into the break one goal up.

Maddison was at the centre of everything. He set up the opening goal for Godden after just seven minutes and three minutes later the same combination made it 2-0.

The lead was halved after just 16 minutes when Jason McCarthy’s cross from the right was diverted into his own net by the head of the stretching Tafazolli.

Naturally it was Maddison who restored Posh’s two-goal cushion with a delightful freekick into the far corner.

O’Malley then spilled a back-post cross from Nick Freeman, allowing Bloomfield to score on his 500th professional appearance.

Maddison struck again in the second half courtesy of a Godden assist and Posh comfortably saw out the win.

The Posh man-of-thematch was into everything

Darren Ferguson (right) on the touchline.