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My Posh Day: Roy Ward of Alsace, France


Morecombe 3, Posh 2

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Published Date: 31 December 2007
CURRENT FORM: I've been a Posh fan since about 1973 when I was just eight years old. I first went to a game when my St Pauls Road neighbours took me to see Posh play Norwich in a pre-season friendly.
My most memorbale game is either beating Huddersfield 2-1 away in the play-off semi-finals in 1992, or the 2-2 draw at Chesterfield in 1991 which was good enough to get us out of the old Fourth Division.

Beating Cobblers 4-1 away in the FA Cup wh
en Tommy Robson scored twice comes a good third. My least memorable game was losing 1-0 away to Cambridge in a big Third Division game in 1978.

I currently live in Alsace, France, with my wife Carol and two daughters Rachael and Sarah. We left England about 15 years ago, originally working in Strasbourg, France then shifting down to Basel, Switzerland where we now work, but we still live over in France.

My claim to fame is playing for FC Duttlenheim in Alsace which is where Arsene Wenger is originally from.

I get to see Posh three or four times a season. My Ma & Pa still live in Peterborough and the outlaws live in Birkenhead – so I always cunningly try and coincide visits with Posh matches.

PRE-MATCH: My Scouse wife has long given up on coming to Posh matches (I don't know why) so I took along a Liverpool(Tranmere fan and told him the experience will do him good – besides he has banned me from Tranmere games after our win there in the Cup last season.

We flew back to England over Xmas with Ma & Pa Ward (they both used to man the Posh turnstiles in our non-league days).
I was staying at the in-laws in Birkenhead so it took me about two hours to drive up to the match avoiding the Everton-Arsenal traffic in Liverpool.

EXPECTATIONS: Posh seem to have a good ambitious manager in place and a strong chairman (his face is all over the bill-boards in the Costa Del Sol). We appear to have a good attacking flair in Boyd, McLean, Mackail-Smith but the definsive side worries me apart from Tyler in goal.

It's no surprise we smashed 15 goals in five games recently but our defence does look wobbly. Teams seem to work us out easily by successfully packing midfield and defence and catching us on the break.

Getting out of the league is no forgone conclusion for us and we have got to work out how to tactically undo teams that are solid in midfield and defence and catching us on the break. First I would purchase some big ugly defenders to sort out our defence.

HALF-TIME REPORT: Shockingly good start from Posh who scored two goals from corners (after telling my Scouse mate we never score from corners). Generally it was a good first half for Posh and a good open game, but foolishly just before the break Posh conceded a goal from a set piece which was identical to a play five minutes earlier and identical to the goal we conceded against Bradford. I can still more goals in this game and Morgan was our best player first half.

FULL-TIME REPORT: Shocking! How can we be 2-0 up, they have their best player sent off and we still manage to lose?

An incredibly poor second half performance where we lacked urgency, motivation, hunger, desire, ideas and depth. Morecambe simply wanted it more than we did.

The sending off probably worked against us as they regrouped and packed their defence while scoring twice more from a corner and a penalty.

From that moment Posh were poor with surprising substitutions (right to take Howe off, but not to bring Hughes on) and I cannot see us continuing our promotion challenge on this performance.

My Scouse mate was surprised at the lack of communication on the pitch with the exception of Tyler.

We need Mclean back on the pitch, but most of all we need to match the desire and will to win of teams like Morecambe. Read Swann's match report.

IF I HAD NOT BEEN AT THE GAME: Normally I am picking up my daughters from gym during match times. Pa Ward texts me the scores through as he likes to try and beat me getting the scores on the TV.



The full article contains 746 words and appears in Peterborough ET newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 31 December 2007 11:29 AM
  • Source: Peterborough ET
  • Location: Peterborough
 
 

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