High-class Peterborough United blow Lincoln City away as the deadly duo cause havoc with the help of their friends

The deadly duo of Jonson Clarke-Harris and Jack Marriott will doubtless grab the headlines after they shared the goals in a 4-0 win, but this was a stunning all-round performance featuring crisp passing, two more goal contributions from assist king Joe Wrad, some tenacious pressing and defending good to ensure goalkeeper Lucas Bergstrom didn’t have a single save of note to mate.

The only negative was not scoring more. It was 3-0 at the break and it could have been 7-0 against a team who had started the day unbeaten. Marriott hit the woodwork twice in the opening quarter of an hour and visiting goalkeeper Jordan Wright made two impressive one-on-one saves which effectively denied two Posh players a hat-trick.

A strong home record is essential to all promotion hopefuls and Posh have now won three games at the Weston Homes Stadium by an aggregate of 9-0.

To no-one’s surprise Posh named an unchanged starting line-up. It was decided to save Kwame Poku for the rigours of an EFL Cup tie at Stevenage on Tuesday.

He wasn’t needed, not in the first-half anyway as Posh stormed into a decisive lead against a visiting side playing a brave high defensive line. Actually scrub that it was a stupid high defensive line which Posh breached time and time again. ‘Bravery’ also applied to playing three up top, but right-winger Jordan Garrick did at times expose the frailties of the left side of the home defence.

Marriott took the ball off the foot of Clarke-Harris to strike the post in the second minute after Ward had escaped around the back. On eight minutes Marriott sent Clarke-Harris through and his powerful left-foot strike forced a fine save from Imps’ ‘keeper Jordan Wright.

A clever free kick involving a long pass from Ronnie Edwards and a technically excellent volleyed cross from Harrison Burrows led to Marriott heading against the top of the crossbar six minutes later and Marriott was denied from close range by Wright,.

But fears that Posh would rue these missed opportunies were soon allayed when Marriott scored from the most difficult of his four opportunities in the opening 25 minutes. Ben Thompson found him, behind the visiting defence once more of course, with a great crossfield pass and the striker controlled the ball first with his head and then his foot before drilling accurately home with his left foot.

Jeando Fuchs also received credit from his teammates for a block a moment earlier to thwart Teddy Bishop. He was up to feed the ball to Thompson.

Bergstrom immediately fumbled a harmless cross which requred Frankie Kent to hack off the line, but Posh were 2-0 up before the half hour mark.

A long ball forward was collected by Ward who drove towards goal and appeared to well tackled by Paudie O’Connor. Referee Rebecca Welch pointed to the spot though, presumably for an earlier tugging offence and Clarke-Harris did the rest.

Three minutes before the break Marriott escaped again only for Wright – it was a battle of the beanpole keepers today – to make another fine save, but within a minute Ward had breezed past his marker and delivered the perfect pass for Clarke-Harris to tap home.

Incredibly a stray Lincoln pass then sent Marriot through again, but he lost control at the vital moment.

It had been a stunning half, but a 3-0 lead doesn’t always mean inevitable victory in this fixture.

Lincoln’s response was to send on a defender for a forward at the break, but they still, bizarrely, kept a high back line and lo and behold a clipped pass forward from Edwards sent Marriott scuttling through again in the 51st minute and this time he didn’t miss.

And that was effectively that. Posh had done all they needed to apart from preserve a clean sheet, while Lincoln settled for damage limitation in front of the away fans who never stopped singing on a ground where bad things tend to happen to their team

Many subs arrived to add further disruption and only a 25-yard free kick from Lasse Sorensen which deflected over his bar caused Bergstrom any concern.

There was one last chance for Marriott to claim his hat-trick, but he just poked the wrong side of the post after pouncing on yet another through ball.

He’ll get many more chances at this level which should concern the rest of the League One promotion hopefuls.

Posh: Lucas Bergstrom, Harrison Burrows (sub Joe Tomlinson, 60 mins), Frankie Kent, Ronnie Edwards, Nathan Thompson (sub Josh Knight, 60 mins), Joe Ward (sub David Ajiboye, 70 mins), Jeando Fuchs, Jack Taylor, Ben Thompson (sub Hector Kyprianou, 70 mins), Jack Marriott, Jonson Clarke-Harris (sub Joe Taylor, 82 mins).

Uused subs: Will Blackmore, Ricky-Jade Jones.

Lincoln: Jordan Wright, Jamie Robson, Regan Poole, Paudie O’Connor, Timothy Eymoa, Max Sanders, Lasse Sorensen, Teddy Bishop (sub Tashan Oakley-Boothe, 59 mins), Anthony Scully (sub Sean Roughen 46 mins), Jordan Garrick (sub Charley Kendall, 59 mins), Tom Hopper

Unused subs: Sam Green, Charles Vernam, Jay Benn, Chris Maguire.

Goals: Posh – Marriott (24 mins & 51 mins), Clarke-Harris (pen, 29 mins & 43 mins).

Cautions: Posh – Kent (foul).

Lincoln – O’Connor (foul), Garrick (foul).

Referee: Rebecca Welch 6

Attendance: 9,040.