The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Posh outclassed by rampant Oxford
Only Mystic Meg could have seen this result and performance coming.
A Posh team with a top two finish still firmly in their sights were blown away by a team fighting for the playoffs.
It finished 5-0 to the hosts and, as manager Darren Ferguson admitted afterwards, it could have been a much heavier loss. Oxford also hit the post twice, missed an open goal and saw a one-onone opportunity thwarted by Posh goalkeeper Jed Steer.
But Steer had been culpable in a shambolic first-half which saw Posh gift an Oxford side in rampant form a two-goal lead, one with a casual pass across his own box from Archie Collins and another when Steer chipped the ball obligingly onto the head of the outstanding Josh Murphy.
More worryingly for Posh, from a longer-term point of view, the response to the setbacks was pitiful. They appeared to lack the energy, after starting a third game in six days, to mount a fightback which is the most generous way of explaining such a weak performance.
But it wasn’t one Ferguson subscribed to. He said: “There might be tiredness, but I’m 52, you get tired and you just have to get on with it. There can be no excuses at all from anyone. It was an awful
day. I can’t accept that. The performance hurt me.
"The manner of the goals we lost was so bad. To gift them the first two goals like we did was awful. We’d actually started the game okay and we should have equalised at 1-0. but we were then absolutely outclassed in all departments.
"We let ourselves and the fans down big-time.”
It might have been different if striker Ricky-Jade Jones had converted one of two early close-range chances set up by Ephron MasonClark.
He headed a tricky one over the bar before managing to strike the woodwork from a simple scoring opportunity with his favoured right foot.
Goals change matches so the outcome might well have been different had a natural finisher been on the pitch, but Oxford, who are in fantastic free-scoring form, grew in confidence and battered Posh, even after Ferguson had sent on four substitutes and changed formation at half-time.
Winger Murphy tormented Posh throughout as
Rueben Rodrigues scored twice and Billy Bodin added a classy last-minute coup de grace.
Owen Dale hit a post and missed a gaping goal from six yards out, while Greg Leigh also hit the woodwork as Posh capitulated so badly only replacement David Ajiboye really emerged with any credit.
MATCH FACTS
Posh team and player ratings: Steer 4, Katongo 4, Burrows 5, Knight 4, Edwards 5, Collins 4, Kyprianou 4, Randall
5, Poku 5, Mason-Clark 6, Jones 4. Subs used: ClarkeHarris (for Mason-Clark, 46 mins) 4, David Ajiboye (for Katongo, 46 mins) 6, Romoney Crichlow (for Randall, 46 mins) 5, Emmanuel Fernandez (for Knight, 46 mins) 4, Malik Mothersille (for Jones, 60 mins) 5.
Goals: Oxford – Harris (pen, 10 mins), Murphy (31 mins), Rodrigues (38 mins & 59 mins), Bodin (89 mins).
Posh caution: Katongo.
Referee: Andy Davies 7.
Attendance: 10,046 (998 Posh).