Two goals in six minutes from Sammie Szmodics and Jonson Clarke-Harris saw Peterborough United defeat Crewe Alexandra at London Road yesterday afternoon.
Manager David Artell made 2 changes from Tuesday’s 1-0 win at Shrewsbury Town as Billy Jones replaced Travis Johnson at right-back while Antony Evans came in for the injured Oli Finney in midfield. New loan signing Nathan Wood, who arrived from Middlesbrough on deadline day, was named as a substitute.
The opening chance of the game came in the 20th minute with Clarke-Harris heading wide for the hosts before they would open the scoring 5 minutes later with Siriki Dembele getting in behind Billy Jones on the hosts’ left, playing in Szmodics who fired in across Richards. The second was added just after the half-hour, a similar move down the same side saw Szmodics turn provider to square the ball for Clarke-Harris to roll into the empty net.
Into the second-half where Frankie Kent was booked for an aggressive challenge on Luke Murphy before substitute Stephen Walker crossed for Owen Dale who couldn’t quite keep his header down. Billy Jones would head a corner from Harry Pickering just over the bar before Dembele had a great chance to add a third a couple of minutes from time from substitute Mo Eisa’s pass but was denied by Dave Richards.
The next games for the Alex sees Portsmouth travel to the Alexandra Stadium next Saturday before a trip to Swindon Town the following week.
What can we take out of this game?
Sometimes you just have to admit that you lost to the better team on the day. Yes, the pitch wasn’t great, but that wasn’t the reason for the defeat. Jones was caught out of position for the two goals (something that is a little disappointing that it happened twice in the same game) while Kent could, and maybe should, have seen red for his challenge just after the break.