Defeats against title contenders in League One and the Championship in the first week of the season were enough to convince some sceptics (and Peterborough has more than its fair share) that this team had gone as far as it could.

The strikers weren't scoring, the midfielders weren't creating and defensively the team was more vulnerable at corners than a boy racer hurtling around in the rain.

Well, Leyton Orient must have had a dozen corners and didn't threaten to score from any of them, but that fact will be lost as most fans in a healthy crowd went away dazzled by a breath-taking display of attacking football, particularly in the second-half of a one-sided contest.

Led by their 'Mac Attack' of Craig Mackail-Smith and Aaron Mclean and the ball-juggling brilliance of George Boyd, Posh romped to a 3-0 win, a scoreline that flattered only the visitors.

Mackail-Smith, who bizarrely was described as in a goal drought by one local radio station this week, will doubtless battle with Mclean, who produced a quality finish to avenge his release from Brisbane Road, for the headlines, but if Posh manage to hang on to Boyd for the duration of the season there is something very wrong with the talent-spotting abilities of top flight clubs.

The common opinion is that Boyd can't run fast enough to play at the highest level, yet his feet are so fast and his brain, on a football pitch at least, so alert it would be unfair if he could sprint like a Jamaican giant as well.

Boyd's role in the third Posh goal midway through the second half was a moment of magic which will live long in the memory as he dumped two Orient players on their back-sides, not for the first time in the match, with one trick before delivering a fierce cross which Mackail-Smith eventually bundled over the line.

This match had been billed as the battle of the Boyds, but in reality it was a non-contest as Orient's top scorer Adam Boyd gave the impression that he was conserving energy for something else.

Mackail-Smith's first goal two minutes before the interval was a much classier finish as he pounced on a loose ball on the half-way line before surging forward and curling a shot into the corner of the net.

That finish came as a relief to the player and to Posh fans. Mackail-Smith had spurned three opportunities of varying degrees of difficulty in the opening 10 minutes, misses that appeared to affect the confidence of the team who allowed Orient to dictate the play for much of the half.

The visitors though threatened only once when Wayne Gray muscled his way past Chris Westwood before firing a shot which went out for a throw-in, a moment which summed up Orient's day.

Once ahead Posh were outstanding. Both managers agreed that the tempo of the Posh play and their fitness levels were far too great – a second goal four minutes after the break also helped.

Mclean was the scorer after accepting a Dean Keates free-kick on the edge of the area before working his way into a shooting position and sending a low strike into the bottom corner of the net.

Mclean should have had a second after Boyd and Mackail-Smith opened up the defence quite superbly, but he missed the ball completely from six yards.