Baffling decisions all over the place at Peterborough United, but one stood out from the rest

It wasn’t the inability of referee Scott Tallis to operate a stopwatch effectively or indeed for him to deliver confidence in his foul-detection capabilities.

It also wasn’t Joel Randall’s decision not to shoot instantly when presented with a second-half sitter or for the same player to decide when and how to cross the ball on numerous occasions after his half-time arrival as a substitute. This rather ruined his impressive ability to find space.

No, the most surprising decision, one unveiled at 2pm and one that unravelled by 3.30pm, came from Posh boss Darren Ferguson.

A change of formation from the 4-2-3-1 set-up that brings out the best in Ephron Mason-Clark and Kwame Poku was always a possibility after three League One defeats in a row, but introducing a midfield diamond came right out of the blue.

It had the element of surprise for the opposition as well as the home fans and it’s safe to assume Posh will have had plenty of training time to work on a formation that hadn’t been seen from the start of a game for a while, but there was a low-key game a few days earlier which could have been used as an experiment to see if these players could make this system work.

A midfield diamond demands comfort on the ball and the ability to pass efficiently, accurately and at a decent tempo in tight and crowded areas. Hector Kyprianou aside, no other Posh player tasked with making it work could cope.

It was abandoned after 33 minutes as soon as Leyton Orient had grabbed their equalising goal in a 1-1 draw. One hopes it doesn’t reappear any time soon.

OTHER TALKING POINTS…

1) Baffling selection number two was the failure of Zak Sturge to appear until the 82nd minute. The Chelsea loanee has made a decent impact in his two appearances so far, but Posh still preferred Harrison Burrows at left-back and again he was constantly targeted by long crossfield aerial balls. Apparently the best position for Sturge is left wing-back, but you could also argue that’s Burrows’ best position so it wasn’t much of an argument. When a midfield diamond is in play it places great emphasis on full-backs providing the attacking width and, while Peter Kioso did it on the right-hand side in the first-half, there was nothing coming from the other flank.

2) More selection issues are on the horizon for Posh. Key men Peter Kioso and Hector Kyprianou collected their fourth yellow cards of the League One season yesterday. One more triggers a one-game ban.

3) What is this Posh tactic of bringing every single player back to defend every set-piece all about? On a couple of occasions Posh ‘keeper Nicholas Bilokapic came out and caught a corner and clearly wanted to distribute the ball quickly, including one in the final moments when presumably Posh were still intent on prising out a much-needed home victory, but he couldn't because most of the team were behind him. Do the likes of Kwame Poke and Joel Randall even offer anything when defending a cross? They might offer something on the breakaway.

4) I blame Fergie and Kyprianou for making me expect a good footballing match yesterday. They’d both said Orient were full of good ball-players. Instead we witnessed a team whose main tactic appeared to have been inspired by the ongoing Rugby World Cup. A goalkeeper with a huge kick would belt the ball towards the touchline in the hope of winning a throw-in which, after a period of not-so-subtle timewasting, would be hurled into the penalty area. It was tedious and sadly it worked to the extent of sucking any momentum from the game, all aided an abetted by an ineffective referee.

5) When Orient came out of their defensive shell late in yesterday’s game it was disturbing to see how easily they won their physical battles. Even Ephron Mason-Clark, who no-one would describe as ‘weak’, was getting shrugged aside. When the football isn’t working Posh need to battle more effectively than they managed here.

6) Few would have expected Ronnie Edwards and Jonson Clarke-Harris to start for Posh on September 16 given all the summer transfer chat. Neither were anywhere near their best yesterday and Posh will hope the disappointment of not making moves they wanted is a brief irritation rather than a long-term one. They remain key men.