After half time things continued in pretty much the same vein, and I genuinely felt we’d go on and win it. They had a lot of the ball, but they felt a bit more panicked, a little more forced, and it meant very little in terms of chances. Ben House had a great opportunity to put us 2-0 up, but oddly after the game a lot of people were saying it was a missed chance. Watching it back, he did phenomenally well to control the ball and create an opening, but his just didn’t have an angle and Steer was always odds on to save. In real time, it did look a much more open chance than it was. However, it was another example of House’s exquisite touch and control, and a timely reminder of how good he was in Mark Kennedy’s full season in charge.
Here’s a bold call – if he stays fit for 46 matches, Ben House gets close to 20 goals this season. If he gets seven or eight more before Christmas, we might find the phone ringing red hot in January. I really rate House and he looks back to his best after a tough 12 months.
What’s really frustrating is I never felt we were going to concede. On 58 minutes there were no fewer than seven changes, the most I think I’ve seen in one go in a league match, and it felt like it disrupted the flow a bit. I hoped that would be the case; we can’t start managing the game old-school Wycombe style with 30 minutes to go, but it broke up naturally after that. Tom Reeves, the referee, didn’t help, but in fairness, the decisions I contested at the time all look right. It just got a little bit fractured, and that should have played into our hands.
At this level, one slip can be costly, and so it proved. For all their possession, they offered little in front of goal. We defended the frame well, getting in blocks and clearances. We worked tirelessly, Sean Roughan in particular a man mountain on the left side of the back three. Then, one slip by Tom Hamer led to them getting a spell of possession and a goal. It was painful to watch, Tom had a decent game, but as soon as we gave up possession, their fans woke up, and moments later Poku curled a spectacular effort past Wickens. It was a moment of genius, one that I couldn’t see their other ten players creating, but the one man on the park in blue who could, did. Briefly, I realised there were two sets of supporters in the ground, and I feared the worst.
I need not have bothered. After their goal, Posh had one effort. One. For a side with decent attacking depth, at home, shooting towards their own supporters, that feels poor, but it’s as much down to us as them. They’re not a bad side at all, and they have the power to hurt, as Poku proved, but they never got a chance. For the record, after their goal, we had two chances. It doesn’t mean we were the only ones who wanted to win it, but we cancelled each other out.
The game broke up like the Titanic hitting an iceberg. Goerge Wickens suffered his concussion, and it as really interesting to see Adam Jackson telling him to go off. Jacko is a man who has suffered concussion multiple times, and it was a stark contrast to a couple of weeks ago when Paudie was lifting an injured player up to stay on the field. I really like Jacko, he had a super game yesterday and that level of concern over and above the actual game is what I expect to see from a stand-in captain. I’m sure had the injured player Paudie lifted up been concussed, he would have acted the same. Wickens clearly didn’t want to go off, but the last thing we needed was a slightly dazed keeper, as Posh have the sort of manager who knows to take pot shots at goal when there’s a slight advantage to be had. Zack Jeacock came on and did fine, and it’ll be a big boost for him, given that it felt like he might end up on loan somewhere this season.
We might have snatched it as Bailey Cadamarteri finally got to open his legs up in the dying embers of the game. Roughan (again) flashed a ball into the channel and the on-loan striker let it roll across his chest, taking Kyprianou out of the equation. He was just a little wide, and like House before him, in allowed Steer to make the goal too small for a meaningful effort. Still, it was a nice glimpse into what we might see more of in the coming weeks. Cadamarteri looked quite lively when he came on, but Freddie Draper didn’t get a chance to impose himself on the game. I felt he was fouled for a sure fire penalty towards the end of the game, but watching back, he just slipped. Frustrating, but it’s easy to feel angered about something you see differently in real time.
I say ‘dying embers’ when Cadamarteri got his chance, but it was 39 minutes into the second half, and that meant with injury time we still had 17 minutes to play. We may as well not have bothered, because at that point I suspect we were happy not to lose, and we began to break up play, take time over throw-ins etc. That said, there was no urgency from the home team either, and no late roar of support from around the ground to urge their team on. It felt to me as if both sides were happy to take a point and move on, not so much pushing to win the game as keeping it tight to ensure we didn’t lose. I can handle that – it’s now 12 matches since we last lost away, a remarkable run which matches a club record – we only have to avoid defeat at the bottom side, Cambridge in 13 days time to set a new record. Sounds so easy, doesn’t it?
Ultimately, this was a good point, but in the end, it felt like two dropped. We were in control, unscathed by their quality, until that one little moment. It’s not Tom Hamer’s fault we drew – he had a decent game and there was sufficient passage of play after to stop them scoring, but it does show you the levels you need to reach against the better teams in the division.
We’ll cover a few more players etc, in-depth on the podcast, as there are a few more to talk about, such as Jack Moylan and Erik Ring, both with impressive little cameos, but the one thing I took away from this was a level of parity. Sure, it was 1-1, I get that, but that’s not what I mean. We’ve come away from this game and I feel like we’re on their level. 9,500 supporters in the ground, around 1,600 away. In terms of chances, we traded punches, and unlike the last four times we’ve played them, it didn’t feel like we were playing a side with more money and better players.
It feels like we might have closed the gap on some of the teams we aspire to replicate, and that is a parity I can drink (tea) to this warm Sunday morning.