Rovers lose out in nine goal thriller

Peterborough United 5

Bristol Rovers 4

While the England team served up another poor offering on Setanta against minnows Andorra, Bristol Rovers and Peterborough United rewarded Sky TV’s production staff with a nine-goal thriller.

It was a drama fit for television though there were more villains than heroes for Paul Trollope’s Rovers side in Saturday’s London Road encounter.

There won’t be many, if any, occasions again this season where the Pirates score four goals and come away empty handed but Trollope clearly has his work cut out shoring up a defence which has leaked eight goals in two games.

The Rovers back line was at sea when faced with the pace and movement of the Peterborough attack in the opening half an hour. Steve Elliott even had the indignity of landing on his rear at one point, turned inside out by man of the match Craig Mackail-Smith who later dribbled past Stuart Campbell, Byron Anthony and David Pipe to seal his hat-trick.

Trollope said: “It was a big effort from us, but the outcome is a huge disappointment. We had high hopes of an away win, but it’s clear today that there are some areas of our team that need serious working on.

While the defence was at fault for the five conceded and bore the brunt of Trollope’s post-match analysis, Rovers attack could and should have saved them.

It seems churlish to suggest a side which has just scored four needs to learn to take its chances – Rickie Lambert had continued his feat of scoring in every league game so far, Elliott had rounded off a fine free-kick routine with a back-post header and winger Jeff Hughes stroked home a Chris Lines cross to end a simple yet effective move.

And Posh boss Darren Ferguson branded the match as farcical as, on three occasions, he saw his side surrender a two-goal cushion: at 2-0, 3-1 and 5-3.

But after Elliott’s header against the run of play took the wind out of the hosts, Hughes could have seen the sides go into the break level, spurning a one-on-one with Posh keeper Joe Lewis in injury time.

Rovers had fallen behind to two speedy breaks from Peterborough’s non-league diamonds Aaron McLean and Craig Mackail-Smith. The latter set up the former before the pair reversed roles to double the lead and seemingly bury the Pirates.

Had Hughes not hit his first-half shot straight at Lewis the final result could have been quite different. For Peterborough’s top-scorer last season and the chief protagonist of Rovers misery, McLean, was carried off on a stretcher with a dislocated elbow minutes earlier, Stuart Campbell was starting to dictate the midfield and Peterborough were on the back foot.

That miss and Mackail-Smith’s 50th minute penalty pulled the Posh back into shape. An own goal though from Shane Blackett four minutes later was not only redemption for Aaron Lescott, whose cross forced the error and whose feet had tripped Mackail-Smith for the penalty, it was a further lifeline for Rovers.

Jo Kuffour made his much anticipated debut on 67 minutes, replacing Darryl Duffy, after Peterborough had again restored a two-goal lead, this time through a marvellous individual run and shot from Mackail-Smith.

Trollope withheld Kuffour from the match against Bournemouth to ensure he was ready to make an impact. And though he failed to find the net he proved a useful threat and another fine foil for Lambert.

Trailing 4-2, Hughes, who enjoyed far more forward play in the second half, hit the post with a rare swing of his right peg and Kuffour could have gone down for a penalty. Put through by Lines, Kuffour opted to stay upright as he staggered towards his target after a niggly challenge but was unable to get his shot away with sufficient venom.

Hughes finally found the mark to make it 4-3 before Kuffour again broke through the struggling Peterborough defence, outpacing captain Chris Westwood whose recovery from a hamstring injury won’t have been aided by marking Duffy then Kuffour.

Lewis was forced to make another decisive save to deny Kuffour whose first outing since signing from Bournemouth looked promising.

While the attack will rue those missed chances the defensive frailties Trollope will be concentrating on in training were highlighted for Peterborough’s fifth and final goal. Steve Phillips came tearing off his line and completely missed his attempt to punch Chris Whelpdale’s cross. Substitute Scott Rendell gratefully accepted the resulting free header.

“It was great for the people watching, but not for us managers,” said Ferguson.