More away day disaster as abject Peterborough United beaten at Bristol Rovers

It was a game that both managers came into talking up their forward men believing they had the best two strikers in the league; so of course, none of them scored.

Instead, ex-Man City man Scott Sinclair scored the only goal in a game where there was a clear gulf in class between the sides.

Posh laboured to their seventh away defeat in ten games in a game they never looked like scoring in.

They fell behind early in the second half and had their chances of getting back into the game ruined by referee sending off Ronnie Edwards for a sliding challenge on Josh Coburn for a last-man challenge where he looked to get plenty of the ball.

If anything though, that’s when Posh’s only two real changes of the game came but neither Jonson Clarke-Harris nor Ricky-Jade Jones could take them. It didn’t look as if they would have got back it with eleven either.

It is now back-to-back away defeats but this one looked far more inevitable than Exeter last week.

Posh were dealt a blow at the start when Clarke-Harris was not fit enough to return to the line-up as expected but they were able to welcome back Nathan Thompson in place of namesake Ben at right back.

Never mind talking about goals though, the crowd at the Memorial Stadium would have settled for just some chances in a first half where both keepers were rather untroubled.

Posh looked dangerous on the wings but all too frequently, they couldn’t find a ball to match the quality of the wing play.

Their best and only chance came from a Marriott chest down in the box that was worked out for Thompson to run onto and shoot onto the edge of the box. His skewed effort shows why he is rarely on the scoresheet.

The best chance of the half, which isn’t saying much, fell to Barton’s Golden Boy Collins after 13 minutes. He should have done better but only placed a weak effort from the edge of box into Lucas Bergstrom’s mid-drift when Posh’s defence opened up.

Anthony Evans flashed a shot from 30 yards out wide as the game settled into a pattern of Rovers dominance of the ball in not dangerous areas as Posh struggled to hold up the ball without Clarke-harris in the side.

Bobby Thomas headed a late corner onto the back of Bergstrom, which causes some panic but the 6”9 man stayed calm to collect the rebound.

Posh seemed to have been shaken into life over the half-time break when, from a short corner, Burrows picked out Ephron Mason-Clark at the far-post, who should have done better than direct a header off target.

Instead, the pressure finally told as Posh went to sleep at the back and allowed Sinclair around the back from a low ball to sweep in over Bergstrom.

Things soon got worse for Posh as Mason-Clark appeared to collide with the corner flag and had to be substituted as part of a triple change that saw Clarke-Harris, Joel Randall and Ben Thompson come onto the field.

It did little for Posh’s fortunes with the Pirates retaining the ascendancy and almost adding to their lead through a Jordan Rossiter header.

Then came the red card and Ronnie Edwards can feel aggrieved by a seemingly ridiculous decision to send him from the field as he looked to win the ball when sliding in against Josh Coburn.

Posh then had to weather a storm with Collins, Evans and Lewis Gibson all coming close to scoring before Posh gave it a last hurrah.

First, Harrison Burrows put in a delightful free-kick Clarke-Harris just needed to get anything on to score; only for him to miss. Then Burrows again picked up a loose header and sent a diagonal ball across to Jones in the box to shoot across goal. His effort, in plenty of space, was weak and straight at James Belshaw though.

Nothing could prevent Posh from falling to a deserved defeat.

Posh: Lucas Bergstrom, Dan Butler (sub Josh Knight, 79 mins), Frankie Kent, Ronnie Edwards, Nathan Thompson, Jeando Fuchs, Hector Kyprianou (sub Joel Randall, 62 mins), Harrison Burrows, Ephron Mason-Clark (sub Ben Thompson, 62 mins) Kwame Poku (sub Ricky-Jade Jones, 46 mins), Jack Marriott (sub Jonson Clarke-Harris, 62 mins)

Not used: Will Blackmore, Kell Watts, Josh Knight, Ben Thompson, Joel Randall, Jonson Clarke-Harris

Bristol Rovers: James Belshaw, Lewis Gordon, Bobby Thomas, James Connolly, Lewis Gibson, Scott Sinclair, Sam Finley, Jordan Rossiter, Anthony Evans, Aaron Collins, Josh Coburn

Not used: Anssi Jaakkola, John Marquis, Alfie Kilgour, James Gibbons, Harvey Saunders, Trevor Clarke, Luke McCormick

Goals: Scott Sinclair 53 mins

Cautions: Posh- Nathan Thompson (dissent)

Rovers - Bobby Thomas (foul)

Red cards – Ronnie Edwards (foul)

Referee: Peter Wright

Attendance: 8,635 (518 Posh)