Who Needs The Mac-Attack Weve Got Our Centre Backs Walsall 1-3 Peterborough United

[ymakerpi8d]

A rather scrappy game saw Posh come away with three points, leaving Walsall at the bottom of the League One table.Gary Johnson started new signing Lewin Nyatanga although his position was hard to define in the formation that Posh were deploying, a strategy that had obviously been worked on in training. The formation seemed to work on a pivot so that when Mark Little, who had no right midfielder ahead of him, went forward all the back four shifted along a position resulting in Nana tucking in at left-back, rather than left midfield. Lee Tomlin also came back into the starting line-up, playing in a free-role behind the two usual strikers and Arron Davies replaced the suspended Grant McCann in central midfield.Under pre sure manager, Chris Hutchings used a more straight forward 4-4-2 formation for his Walsall side. New Jourdan Lewis Jersey addition Liam Dickinson was selected to start up-front after joining Walsall on loan. Posh fans knew of the strikers ability after he had a succe sful loan spell at London Road last season. Dickinson partnered Jon Macken in the striking positions with club legend, Jimmy Walker retaining his position in goal.The Poshs recent form had been poor but Walsalls had been even worse therefore, predictably, the opening stages were a little nervy with both sides desperately needing a win. Hutchings had clearly told his side to shoot on sight though and Lewis goal was peppered with shots from long-range early on. First Julian Gray had an effort which went flying over the bar before Lewis was tested for the first time, again from range, tipping a powerful volley from Darryl Westlake over the bar. Moments later Walsall had another effort from distance this time through Ryan McGivern who was given far too much time and easily cut inside before producing an excellent save from Lewis. The Posh goalkeeper, who had also been heavily tested against Brighton, was evidently frustrated and was quick to show his anger about the woeful defending in-front of him that had plagued Peterborough Uniteds season so far.The away side were beginning to settle and were playing the ball around well at times with Lee Tomlin looking particularly dangerous after returning from suspension. The first goal of the match came from a free-kick, perhaps surprisingly given set-piece specialist Grant McCann suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season against Brighton. Arron Davies was elected as dead-ball taker for the day and when his free-kick, taken from near the half way line, was floated into the box, RYAN BENNETT flicked his header towards goal, in a not di similar fashion to Javier Hernandezs style against Stoke, leaving veteran goalkeeper Jimmy Walker with little chance.The goal was perhaps a little harsh on the hosts who had had the better of the early stages but the relief was evident for the Peterborough side with Bennett punching the air in-front of the decent away following of Posh fans. This relief turned into elation moments later though when Mark Little battled to win the ball off McGivern and played Mackail-Smith through to set-up a swift counter attack, with two Peterborough players rushing forward against just one Walsall defender, the former Dagenham man then over-hit his pa s into ARRON DAVIES, who was alongside him, but Davies did well to check back inside, taking two Walsall defenders who had sprinted back out of the game, before curling a fine finish beyond Walker to score his first goal in Posh colours.The Bescot stadium crowd, which was very low, had been quiet up until now but they were now angry after watching their side fall two goals down early on and their frustrations were vented at manager Chris Hutchings. However, his side were doing their best to bounce back and again McGivern was given too much time to cut inside and fire a shot at Lewis, who fumbled the initial effort before quickly recovering, tipping the ball out of a corner just before Macken could get a touch.Posh had learnt from previous games where they had given away leads and were now employing a more defensive mentality to their play, determined to not let another advantage slip. Lewis, however, was still being tested albeit mostly from long-range with Walsall starting to look a little desperate in their attempts to get back into the game.Walsall started the second half brightly, after being booed off by the home crowd at half-time, and Nana and then Nyatanga had to make crucial blocks to maintain Poshs two goal advantage. Lee Tomlin had an effort from distance moments later, after an excellent first touch put him into a great position, but Walker made a good save tipping the ball over the bar for a corner.That shot was a rare moment of attacking threat for Posh in the opening moments of the second period and Walsall were pilling on the pre sure with Peterboroughs defence having to be very alert to stop the hosts from scoring. Walsall did have the ball in the back of the net for the first time though when Clayton McDonald powered a header into the back of the net from a corner but Lewis was judged to have been fouled by the referee who quickly disallowed the strike before the celebrations became too extravagant.It wasnt long before Walsall had the ball in the back of the net for the second time however with the pre sure finally becoming too much for the Peterborough defence to deal with. The goal came from a deep cro s from out on the right hand side, when Nana allowed the Walsall player too much time to cro s and he found JULIAN GRAY in acres of space, after some awful marking from the Posh defence, with Gray flicking a header beyond Lewis and into the far corner of the net.Posh, who could have been shaken by the goal, responded immediately, in the best style. This time a corner from Arron Davies would set-up the goal, after he had already provided the a sistfor the first goal of the night with a set-piece. KELVIN LANGMEAD matched his centre back partners achievement of scoring by smashing one in himself from close range. In-truth he was left with far too much time by a Walsall defence who stood and watched him chest the ball down, swivel and shoot from 6 yards without putting any pre sure on the former Shrewsbury man. Davies admitted that Posh had worked on set-pieces for an hour in training this week and from this evidence it seems to have been effective.Walsall didnt seem to have the heart to get back into the match after another set-back and offered little going forward. Posh were also content with the current scoreline and the game suffered due to this with little quality football on show. Chants of we want Hutchings out rang out around the stadium from the home fans with the away supporters quickly showing their contentment with Gary Johnson as manager, after his future was reportedly in question during the week, with a rendition of theres only one Gary Johnson being heard by the manager.Rueben Reid had the final chance of the game as he looked to score against his former club but Joe Lewis produced another fine save tipping Reids close rangebicyclekickover the bar. Even this chance would not calm the Walsall fans down with those who bothered to stay until the end of the match clearly angry at the current situation their side find themselves in Walsall are 5 points away from safety and at the bottom of theLeague One table Posh fans though were delighted to be back to winning ways and stick with the pace of a number of other sides looking for automatic promotion. Gary Johnson showed his relief with a quick wipe of his brow before his typical celebration of a punch of the air in-front of the visiting supporters who were just as pleased.In my opinion the main thing last night was to get the three points in whatever manner. Walsall were there for the taking so this was a great opportunity to get some much needed confidence back into the team and luckily we did that albeit in a rather scrappy style that lacked quality. Mackail-Smith and McLean had hardly any service although the former didnt help himself by being off-side a number of times.Although we won we were still tested by a side that are bottom of the league defensively and I cant help but feel that a better side with more quality and confidence in their ability would have beaten us last night. Individually the defence are decent Little, Bennett, Langmead and Nyatanga are perfectly capable of playing at this level, in-fact that is a very good defence in this division but they are offered no protection from a midfield who have no idea of how to position themselves in their defensive third. Wesolowski pre sures and hara ses but he is our most defensive midfielder and his style of play leaves him out of position meaning he needs someone behind him who can cover for him, perhaps he may be best deployed in a three man midfield with a defensive midfielder sitting behind him. However, he is a valued member of this team and a very good player capable of playing at a higher level.Another thing that struck me was that Tomlin was arguably better than Boyd has been of late with his first touch, skill and shooting being very good throughout. He has a lot of potential and when he sorts his temperament out, as he matures, he will be a very valuable player, perhaps he even has the talent to surpa s Boyds major achievements at this club, although that still remains to be seen. Dont get me wrong Boyd is brilliant, by far the best player I have ever seen in a Posh shirt in my time of watching Peterborough, albeit that is a relatively small amount of time in comparison to some, but I have still seen a large turnover of players at this football club. This alsoisnt a dig at Boyd but I really do feel Tomlin has the ability to be a fantastic player.As stated earlier the main thing was to get the victory. The style of it wasnt the best, granted, but we needed three points and we got them. You can only beat whats put out in-front of you and thats exactly what we did. A break from league action now, as we play Stockport in the F.A Cup next, and a chance to work on some minor tweaks to a new system that will take some adapting to before we look totally comfortable playing it. Hopefully we can build on this victory now, I for one dont want to see another slump for the rest of this campaign; I saw enough of Posh losing last year.Up The Posh!Attendance: 3,294 (447 Posh fans)Walsall: Walker, Westlake, McDonald, Smith, McGivern, Devaney (Jones, 77), Taundry, Richards, Gray, Macken (Reid, 71), Dickinson.Posh: Lewis (MOM), Little, Langmead, Bennett, Nyatanga, Davies, Wesolowski, Tomlin, Nana, Mackail-Smith, McLean (Whelpdale, 85 minutes)