Hockey report & photos: City of Peterborough are off the mark in the National East Conference Division following a 2-2 draw with Cambridge City today (September 23).
There will be disappointment as they led the derby fixture against Cambridge City twice before conceding a late equaliser at Bretton Gate, but they should take consolation from the fact that other teams in the city would kill to a have point so early in a campaign.
This was a competitive contest as you’d expect with three former Peterborough players in the opposition squad and a draw was probably a fair result with both sides carving out chances in horrible conditions.
The home side struck first when teenager Marcus Howard slid in at the far post to convert a Gareth Andrew cross midway through the first-half and double his National League career goals tally. They should have had a second when James Sharpe missed a sitter moments later.
Cambridge equalised when ex-Peterborough man Ben Hudson was fortunate to see his shot into an empty hit a post and rebound straight to him and the visitors looked the sharper side for the rest of the half.
But Peterborough started the second-half strongly and took the lead in bizarre fashion when Alex Armstrong smacked the ball at goal from 25 yards and watched as Cambridge ‘keeper Nick Rowley deflected the ball into his own net. Last season that wouldn’t have been a goal, but own goals are now allowed to the embarrassment of Rowley.
He redeemed himself with a couple of smart saves at short corners, while Chris Vine also made a couple of decent stops as Cambridge fought hard to get back in the game.
Their pressure eventually told from a short corner. Vine blocked the original shot, but Cambridge forced the rebound home with just seven minutes to go.
Peterborough, with David Appleton rampaging down the right wing, finished on top and had a couple of short corner opportunities that went begging. Set-pieces might form a large part of the training programme this week.
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