Peterborough Sports held at home in tough conditions
There was a rare sighting of Peterborough Sports at the Bee Arena yesterday (January 29), but a first Southern League Premier Division Central home game of 2022 didn’t deliver a much-needed win.
The 1-1 draw with Tim Flowers’ Stratford was probably a fair result on a blustery day, but Sports will be disappointed not to have held on to a second-half lead given to them by centre-back Richard Jones.
After a series of mixed league results, Sports looked to get back to winning ways with on loan Posh winger Johnson Gyamfi coming in for his debut.
A vicious wind blew down the pitch, causing problems for both teams and in truth neither mastered it for the 90 minutes.
It was to be a game of few real chances, but Sports were out of the blocks quickly with the Stratford keeper Liam O’Brien having to save smartly from a Josh McCammon effort on two minutes.
On 20 minutes a good chance for Sports with a Luke Warner-Eley cross met by the trusty forehead of Michael Gash, but his effort was straight at O’Brien. Stratford had their best chance of the game in the 25th minutes with a sharp effort hitting the Sports crossbar.
Lots of huff and puff for the remainder of the first half and the next good chance was on 55 minutes when Gyamfi was clear through on goal, but O’Brien was out quickly to block the shot and Stratford were able to clear.
Two minutes later Sports had the breakthrough as a good corner from Lewis Hilliard was stabbed home by skipper Jones. Sports were looking the better outfit and put together several good moves but they were pegged back to 1-1 on 80 minutes when Dawes received the ball outside the Sports box, dribbled in and smashed home.
Sports remain third, but are just five points clear of AFC Rushden & Diamonds who head the teams outside the play-off places.