Peterborough United turn Cambridgeshire blue in emphatic style with derby day demolition

For months, voices inside and outside of the club have been saying that the way Posh have been playing someone is due a thumping and what better time for it to finally come than against Cambridge?

In just about as perfect an afternoon as possible, Posh slammed in five goals unanswered goals to record their biggest ever victory over their fierce local rivals.

Cambridge came into the match with a league-high eight clean sheets and set up as if they would have been delighted to leave London Road with a 0-0 but their resistance lasted little more than half an hour and was no match for some scintillating attacking play from Posh. They ended up shipping a quarter of their season tally of goals in one miserable afternoon in Peterborough.

Fans initially may have thought they were in for a long frustrating afternoon due to Cambridge’s negative tactics but an Ephron Mason-Clark double and a fourth in five games from Kwame Poku in the space of just six minutes blew the game wide open.

Poku doubled his tally in the second half and a Liam Bennett own goal that brought back happy memories of Lloyd Jones 12 months ago completed the rout.

Darren Ferguson made two changes to the side that saw the club’s unbeaten run come to an end on Tuesday night, restoring Archie Collins in place of Jadel Katongo and brining in Joel Randall for David Ajiboye, shifting Poku back out to the right wing.

Presumably the Posh boss was looking to use his pace to exploit the ageing Cambridge backline but for the first 34 minutes, Posh found themselves up against a compact defence and midfield that left very little space for the any football to be played. The giant midfielder destroyer Paul Digby was even used as a number nine out of possession as the visitors tried to stop Posh from controlling play at the back.

Until the first goal, all of Posh’ play yielded very little the chaos began when they finally a different approach and the first ball thrown into the box was an exquisite pick-out of Mason-Clark at the backpost by Poku and he made no mistake directing his header in at the near post.

With three minutes later, the previously impenetrable defence was breached again thanks to a flowing move that started with Ronnie Edwards at the back, went through Peter Kioso and Hector Kyprianou before Ricky-Jade Jones was sent running through on the right of the box to slide across to give Mason-Clark a simple tap-in for his second of the game.

A further three minutes later, Posh proved the old saying that when it’s your day, it’s your day when a huge stroke of fortune brought their third. Poku cut past a helpless Danny Andrew and tried to curl a shot into the far corner but instead found the turned back of Michael Morrison and the ball preceded to deflect right up and over Jack Stevens into the near corner.

Cambridge came out with fresh impetus in the second half but that was only fleeting as when Kioso rose to head away a 54th minute corner, Posh sprung a quick counter attack, Archie Collins ran the ball more than half the length of the field, waited until exactly the right moment to send Randall free in the box, when Posh had a three-on-one and he rolled across to Poku for another simple finish.

The only slight concern for the remainder of the game was captain Peter Kioso limping off but Posh had broken the spirit of Cambridge long before then.

Just to round off the U’s horror show with four minutes to play, Liam Bennett rose highest from Randall’s cross from a corner played short and headed past his own keeper.

Never before in history, had this fixture been won by five goals, before today.

Posh: Nicholas Bilokapic, Harrison Burrows, Ronnie Edwards, Josh Knight, Peter Kioso (sub Jadel Katongo 68 mins), Archie Collins, Hector Kyprianou, Ephron Mason-Clark, Joel Randall, Kwake Poku (sub David Ajiboye 84 mins), Ricky-Jade Jones (sub Jacob Wakeling 84 mins)

Not used: Fynn Talley, Romoney Crichlow, Ryan De Havilland, Jonson Clarke-Harris.

Cambridge: Jack Stevens, Liam Bennett (sub Jubril Okedina 87 mins), Danny Andrew ( sub Brandon Haunstrup 87 mins), Paul Digby, Michael Morrison, Ryan Bennett, James Brophy (sub Elias Kachunga 79 mins), George Thomas (sub John-Kyamani Gordon 63 mins), Fejiri Okenabirhe, Saikou Janneh (sub Gassan Ahadme 63 mins), Adam May

Not used: Will Mannion.

Goals: Posh – Mason-Clark 34 mins, 37 mins Poku 40 mins, 54 mins, Bennett og 86 mins.

Ref: Scott Oldham 8.

Att: 11,645