Blackburn 5 Posh 2

Peterborough crashed out of the Carling Cup at Ewood Park on a night full of action and controversy. It`s a pity really that only 8,419 turned up to see it.

With Blackburn having been hit for five by Chelsea at the weekend and with the club having been affected by the swine flu epidemic, Posh had high hopes of getting into the last eight of the competition.

Both sides fielded strong elevens with the Posh side looking strong with the only noticeable absentees being Gabriel Zakuani and Craig Mackail-Smith.

Indeed, Posh got off to a bright start when, pushing forward, George Boyd win a corner in the first minute, but any hopes of maintaining that bright start evaporated I the fourth minute when Pedersen crashed home a glorious free kick, from outside the box, to give the home side the lead.

Posh refused to buckle though and a comeback. Whelpdale saw a heard, from a Frecklington cross, go wide before, in the seventeenth minute, the same player rose smartly to head home, from close range, a Rowe cross to put Posh on level terms.

Blackburn retaliated with a thirty-five yard shot from Olsson that drifted wide and Hoilett and Kalinic both had efforts that came to nothing.

Posh were also active on the shots front with Frecklington seeing a shot blocked by Emerton and Mclean seeing a shot blocked by Jones.

With thirty-five minutes gone Lee hobble doff to be replaced by Martin.

Our hosts, still playing adventurous football, saw a Kalinic header go wide before, with five minutes to half time, Mclean had a shot blocked by Salgado and Olsson blocked a Whelpdale shot.

Unfortunately, just as you hoped Posh would go in at half time all square, disaster struck.

A poor Martin header, in the general direction of Lewis, was intercepted by Pedersen and the Norwegian tumbled over as Lewis tried to intercept. The referee, Mr Taylor, immediately pointed to the penalty spot and brandished a red card in the direction of Lewis.

With Lewis trudging disconsolately off, Darren Ferguson was forced to withdraw Batt and throw on his substitute keeper, McKeown whose first job was to pick the resulting penalty kick, from Reid, out of his net.

It was a controversial ending to the first half.

Nevertheless, Posh refused to lie down and die and five minutes into the second half were level again with the goal coming from Boyd who lashed home a shot from the edge of the area. Could Posh pull off the improbable?

Those hopes lasted a mere seven minutes when the ex-Real Madrid full back, Salgado, finished off neatly, converting a cross from Emerton.

Trying to pull it back to 3-3 Whelpdale saw his shot saved by Brown in the Blackburn goal before, in the seventy second minute, Blackburn wrapped it up with a fourth goal, a goal clinically scored by McCarthy, from the edge of the box, drilling home a pass from Kalinic.

Two minutes later, ten-men Posh, were the victims of a fifth goal when Pearce was harshly judged to have handled a cross. This time Kalinic made no mistake from the spot.

Posh were now down and out and recent swine flu victim, Dunn, had two further opportunities to increase the lead but his first shot was blocked and his second was slipped wide of the post.

On the surface a disappointing result but considering how events unraveled, I was quite proud of the boys as I travelled home in the early hours of the morning.






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