Peterborough United lose their unbeaten record to a freak, fluke and very controversial late goal

To be fair to the Cobblers they had looked the most likely side to score in the final 20 minutes – co-incidentally after Posh had made a triple substitution – that ended their superiority in the second-half.

Mitch Pinnock’s hopeful, and to be fair hopeless, high hoof into the Posh penalty area in the 90th minute forced goalkeeper Nicholas Bilokapic to back pedal. There was a fumble and his feet certainly appeared to travel beyond the goalline, but whether or not the ball did is another matter, although an assistant who was not in line showed no hesitation in awarding the goal.

And so a winless run at Sixfields in this fixture for the home side that stretched back to 2002 was over. It was a first win against Posh in any Football League match since 2006.

And Posh can also blame themselves for the result. At times they looked a class apart with the precision of their passing and the quality of their movement, but numerous great positions were wasted by poor crosses and wasteful shooting. For all their possession home goalkeeper Max Thompson didn’t have to make a meaningful save.

Posh were boosted beforehand by a shock heavy home reverse for League One leaders at the hands of Bolton Wanderers. That meant a bigger win than Stevenage could manage at Reading would take Darren Ferguson’s side to the top of the table.

An unchanged side in terrific form took to the Sixfields pitch, possibly for the penultimate time given impending end of transfer window sales.

The hosts were brimming with confidence, secure in the knowledge they’d played better than their early-season results would suggest. They had that horrible history to overcome though.

And for the opening 15 minutes that record never looked like ending. Cobblers looked nervous in possession and Posh found pretty passing patterns in midfield areas.

The best opportunity of the first half arrived early. After just 90 seconds home ‘keeper Max Thompson muffed a backpass and was robbed by Jonson Clarke-Harris. He fed Joel Randall who, with two covering defenders to beat, fired high and wide.

Randall made a much better scoring attempt a few minutes when meeting a fine cross from Harrison Burrows and glancing a header just past a post,

Kwame Poku and Peter Kioso wasted excellent crossing positions and it was down the right that Posh found most attacking joy. Poku twice cut inside his marker Patrick Brough, but saw shots blocked by despairing defenders and he also missed the target badly after creating space on the edge of the penalty area.

Cobblers did grow into the game. They started to shut off the midfield space, but created little until Ronnie Edwards passed straight to Kieron Bowie who advanced into the penalty area and smashed a shot at goal that Bilokapic diverted past a post just before the half hour mark.

It was a second passing error in a couple of minutes from a player who hadn’t made that many all season.

Posh threatened down the left early in the second half as Ephron Mason-Clark darted inside before shooting straight at Thompson.

Poku then charged forward and threaded a lovely pass inside, but his teammates took too long to shoot with Mason-Clark eventually seeing a drive deflected over. From the corner Clarke-Harris and Romoney Crichlow saw shots blocked.

Posh continued to push and more excellence from Poku and a toe-poked cross saw Mason-Clark bundle home from close range, but from an offside position.

And Posh missed a glorious chance to take the lead on 65 minutes. A superb pass from Archie Collins sent Burrows away and he picked out Mason-Clark unmarked in the penalty area. He should have scored and he could have passed to Clarke-Harris to give him a tap-in, but instead he shot wide.

Posh made a triple substitution with 20 minutes to go and shifted Poku into a more central position.

They didn’t help. Cobblers immediately became the more threatening side. Posh had to defend as the home side started bossing the ball and sending crosses into area, most of them were well defended.

One misjudgement from Crichlow and substitute Joe Tomlinson allowed Mitch Pinnock to steal into the area. He tried to find Sam Hoskins, but Kioso defended the situation well.

But Posh couldn’t get out. Poku became starved of possession and others lost it regularly.

Whether or not Posh deserved to lose to guesswork from an official is another matter.

They even had a chance to equalise in seven minutes of added time when Collins met a cross from substitute Ajiboye, but his shot was blocked.

It was one of those afternoons.

Posh: Nicholas Bilokapic, Harrison Burrows (sub Joe Tomlinson, 71 mins), Romoney Crichlow (sub Kabongo Tshimanga, 90 + 1 mins)., Ronnie Edwards, Peter Kioso, Hector Kyprianou, Archie Collins, Joel Randall (sub David Ajiboye, 72 mins), Kwame Poku, Ephron Mason-Clark, (sub Ricky-Jade Jones, 71 mins), Jonson Clarke-Harris.

Unused subs: Fynn Talley, Josh Knight, Ryan De Havilland.

Cobblers: Max Thompson, Jack Sowerby (sub Will Hondermarck, 60 mins), Jon Guthrie, Sam Sherring, Sam Hoskins, Mitch Pinnock, Tyreece Simpson (sub Louis Appere, 68 mins), Kieron Bowie (sub Manny Monthe, 77 mins), Marc Leonard, Akin Odimayo (sub Harvey Lintott, 77 mins), Partick Brough.

Unused subs: Peter Abimbola, Max Dyche, James Dadge

Goals: Posh –

Cobblers – Pinnck (90 mins).

Cautions: Posh – Collins (foul), Kioso (foul).

Cobblers –

Referee: Martin Woods 8.

Attendance: 7,684 (1,451 Posh).