Half century for Sammie who believes Posh are set to hit peak form again, but he misses out on League One fans’ prize

Sammie Szmodics (left) with Jonson Clarke-Harris during the 7-0 Posh win over Accrington Stanley. Photo: David Lowndes.

Posh emerged from a poor run of form to thrash Accrington Stanley 7-0 in a League One fixture at the Weston Homes Stadium last Saturday (March 27) with Szmodics scoring twice and assisting on another goal in a man-of-the-match display.

The 25 year-old’s first goal was the 50th of his Football League career (35 of them for Colchester).

Szmodics was then nominated for player-of-the-month for March in a League One fans’ poll, but he finished third in that behind winner Jerry Yates (Blackpool) and runner-up Will Nightingale (AFC Wimbledon).

Sammie Szmodics on his way to his second goal for Posh against Accrington Stanley. Photo: David Lowndes.

“We put down a real marker after a couple of bad results,” Szmodics said. “And we want to put another one down in two tough games over Easter.

“Matches against Fleetwood (Good Friday) and Sunderland (Easter Monday) would be massive matches at any time of the season, but with just nine games to go they are huge.

“Fleetwood was a tough game away from home last season (Posh lost 2-1) and they were tough at home this season (Posh won 2-1), while Sunderland will have great threats and with the game live on Sky it just makes that match even bigger.

“Everyone is talking about us again though after our big win. We had five players selected for the EFL League One team of the week which shows how well we played. It’s given everyone a real confidence boost to win like that without players of the quality of Siriki Dembele and Jack Taylor.

“Harrison Burrows was excellent and Jonson Clarke-Harris was in the right place all the time to grab a hat-trick. It was nice to hear him say some good things about me, but I did write on his matchball ‘this should have been mine.’

“I’ve had a few two-goal games this season (4) so it looks like I’ll never get a hat-trick, but I was so pleased to be able to create a goal for Mo Eisa. We were all over the moon for him to get a goal as he hadn’t scored for a while and he made a really difficult finish look easy.

“It’s not just about the starting XI which is why it was also good to see Idris (Kanu) get a goal. We have great togetherness at the club.”

The EFL fans’ vote for League One player-of-the-month: 38% Yates, 34% Nightingale, 12% Szmodics, 9% Conor Washington (Charlton), 7% Luke O’Nien (Sunderland) and 1% Matt Ingram (Hull).