A Review By John Taylor

Following January's upturn in fortunes, the first game of February, at London Road, was an ideal start to the month. For once, confidence was high as Peterborough is one of those grounds we've got a good record on and Barry Fry's men were not exactly in a raging run of form. Added to this, the win over QPR the previous week left us all feeling we could beat anyone in the division.

The side showed just one change from the Rangers game, with Dawson replacing the suspended Uhlenbeek. From the off, Posh attacked with much vigour and we faced several early corners and a vociferous penalty appear when Clive Platt tumbled in the box under pressure from Evatt. The ref got it right and waved away the home appeals. Town, despite the pressure looked very composed and defended well. On the break we looked very dangerous and Glynn Hurst was agonisingly close to opening the scoring when he rolled the ball just wide when latching on to a fine McMaster pass. The half ended with Posh having gained 10 corners to our none, but it stayed goalless, which was fine by us.

Shortly after the resumption we won our first corner as Tyler pushed aside Brandon's effort and from McMaster's kick, Evatt knocked the ball back across goal for the lively Hurst to flick in from close range. The 1200 plus travelling fans went wild, unsurprisingly and captain Hudson secured a booking for over-the-top celebrations. Peterborough hit back well and forced several corner and some desperate tackling by the Town rearguard. Bookings ensued for Dawson and Niven, so some degree of steadiness was called for in the challenges. Muggleton effectively won us the game on 75 minutes when he made an awesome save from substitute Fotiadis. From the breakaway, a superbly sweeping move on the left wing saw some great running off the ball, splendid first time passing and Hudson's astute pass found McMaster for our goal of the season. This put us 2 up away for the first time since August 02 at Mansfield. Posh came back at us after this and towards the end McMaster put in a block tackle in our box and sustained a nasty looking ankle injury. Why was he defending anyway?

No matter, as we held on for an excellent win to take us out of the bottom four for the first time in months. That felt very good indeed.

Next up was our first encounter at Saltergate with the strangely named Rushden & Diamonds. We were without Niven, recalled by Bolton and the injured McMaster. Dawson was dropped and in came Uhlenbeek, Allott and Davies. The game got off to an amazing start as we were ahead on 2 minutes as Allott's throw was flicked on by Blathers for Hurst to knock in at the far post. The rest of the half was a robust sort of game with Town very positive a hard working, not allowing Rushden a real chance and always looking threatening up front. We set about the whole game with a renewed sense of purpose and professionalism that was most encouraging to witness. The half ended with us still 1-0 up with the half-time conversation very positive and confident as a refreshing change.

The second half proved that the confident talk over the Bovril was well justified and we continued to attack the Diamonds with some good football which needed them to be at their best, or the officials to be at their frustrating worst to thwart us. On the break we dealt with their thrusts very well despite the impishness of Jack and the physical and surprisingly clumsy presence of Lowe. The game was sealed for us with a two-fold rare event indeed. We were awarded our second penalty of the season when Brandon was felled in the box, after seemingly handling the ball himself. Television replays proved the referee correct, however, as the Rushden defender was without doubt the guilty party. The ensuing spot kick was put away with aplomb for David Reeves' first goal of the campaign and his first since Blackpool in October-02. Whilst this game never reached any heights, we looked assured and professional. Thoroughly deserving our third 2-goal victory on the bounce, we had only 1 small negative, as Brandon was booked for hoofing the ball away. Still, sixth from bottom of the table was looking quite a heady height after the game.
 

Our next fixture was to prove a stern test with the trip to Wiltshire for an encounter with a Swindon side showing excellent form. Anything we got from this game would be a bonus and from the way the game went, that seemed to be the players' mentality. It was almost as if they merely went to fulfil a fixture they thought they could get nothing from. Hurst and Reeves up front worked hard whilst getting no service whatever. Every time Chris Brandon got anywhere near the box he refused to cross the ball and lost it. McMaster looked about as fit as me after 4 pints and a curry whilst Hudson looked more interested in modelling his new blond-streaked hairstyle than running midfield. The defence looked reasonable and dogged, with the exception of Uhlenbeek who seemed unable to do much right. Swindon needed to show little of their excellent form of late to win the game. They were physical without being dirty and delivered the ball well into the box for their goals on 33 and 87 minutes. The difference from the shambles that turned out at Saltergate in October was remarkable. They will have a very good chance of promotion of they continue in this vein.

The Town contingent in the crowd were considerably displeased with our showing and the players looked suitably sheepish as they shambled off at full time. Marvin Robinson, on as substitute, committed the biggest sin of the day, however, appearing with gloves on with his short-sleeved shirt. I don't like outfield players wearing gloves at the best of times, but with a short-sleeved shirt, this really is a sartorial crime.

We needed to bounce back from this setback fairly sharply and the visit of Colchester should have provided the ideal opportunity. We are really due a victory against the Essex outfit after some of the home performances in recent times. The fates conspired against us, however, as snow and ice meant an early Saturday morning postponement and the misery of a Saturday afternoon without a game. Some consolation came after the full-time results, however, as we climbed the table by a place as Brentford's defeat meant their goal difference became worse than ours.

So, after a bright start, the month fell away somewhat with a very poor display and a blank Saturday. Two wins and a defeat is, however, more that satisfactory and our status outside the relegation places is, likewise, very encouraging. March's fixtures will provide a severe test though and we need to keep the form of early February going to stay out of those bottom four places. Teamwork and freedom from injury or suspension are key in this, so a bit of luck in that direction is vital. Most of all, we need to beat Wednesday-please!