Peterborough United 3-0 Charlton Athletic: Posh delight Darren Ferguson with emphatic result

By Matt Wright

PETERBOROUGH U 3

Hughes 38, Odoh 43, Mothersille 79

CHARLTON ATH 0

Darren Ferguson hailed his Peterborough United side after they extended their unbeaten run to eight matches with a crushing win over League One promotion-chasing Charlton Athletic.

The victory moved them nine points clear of the relegation zone and all but secured their League One status for next season.

The match at the Weston Homes Stadium turned on Charlton goalkeeper Will Mannion handling Kayne Ramsay’s backpass as Posh opened the scoring very shortly after through Sam Hughes.

Posh controlled proceedings from that point onwards, adding further goals from Abraham Odoh and Malik Mothersille.

HAVING A LAUGH: Peterborough’s Sam Hughes, left, celebrates his opener with James Dornelly PICTURES: Alamy

Important

Ferguson said: “We missed some unbelievable chances at 2-0, clear-cut chances, but once we got the third, we got through it quite comfortably, but I was just praying we didn’t pay for the misses.

“It was an important performance.

“I felt it coming.

“I felt if we got things right in possession, which we did a lot of work on because they’re so aggressive, and beat the press, then we’d have too much pace for them, and that’s how it turned out.

“No one could argue after about 60 minutes we could have been 5-0up.

“We missed three unbelievable chances and when you don’t take them, against a team like that who are throwing the ball into the box and have some real quality in their team…

“But I think in the main we dealt with them well and the players should take a lot of credit for that performance, but I’ve felt it coming.”

Match action

Charlton almost led in the third minute when a looping header by Lloyd Jones from Luke Berry’s corner came off the crossbar.

Following an indirect free-kick from Mothersille being smothered, Posh took the lead after 38 minutes when Kwame Poku’s ball back into the area was headed in, for his first goal for the club, by Hughes.

Five minutes later, Posh doubled their lead as Ricky-Jade Jones broke away through the middle before passing to Odoh, who bent in a fine finish after cutting inside.

After missing a succession of chances, the hosts had the third goal their performance deserved in the 79th minute when Cian Hayes’ ball across the area was converted by Mothersille.

CLASH: Peterborough’s Ricky-Jade Jones, left, and Charlton’s Lloyd Jones battle for the ball

Quality

Charlton boss Nathan Jones, whose side are now eight points behind second-placed Wrexham, said: “It’s a backpass, the referee’s made the correct decision.

“We’ve just got to clear that.

“Clear it, defend your box and there’s no problem.

“Then from a corner, they leave three up, we weren’t aggressive enough on the first ball and then they get in [for the second goal], and that’s stuff we work on.

“When you go asleep against these, they can carve you open because they have got real good players.

“We didn’t handle that and we didn’t show enough quality in the final third.

“We can give them credit for the way their attacking players played, but for us, in terms of our attacking threat out there today, we needed to be better.”

Player ratings

Peterborough United: Steer 8, Dornelly 7 (Johnston 60, 6), Wallin 8, Hughes 8, Mills 6, Susoho 7 (De Havilland 83), Collins 6, Poku 7 (Hayes 54, 7), Mothersille 8 (Fernandez 83), Odoh 8, Jones 7. Subs not used: Bilokapic, Katongo, Conn-Clarke.

Charlton Athletic: Mannion 6, Ramsay 7, Jones 7, Gillesphey 6, Small 6, Coventry 6 (Ahadme 82), Docherty 6, Watson 6 (Aneke 54, 6), Berry 6 (McIntyre 69, 6, Campbell 6 (Anderson 81), Godden 6 (Gilbert 69, 6). Subs not used: Enslin, Bouzanis.