Peterborough United talking points: 'Winning ugly is a skill especially after such a problematic build-up,, a breakout game for full Football League debutant, one sub who must start, and making the best use of Jack Taylor'

Posh rarely dominated lowly hosts in their 2-1 League One win at Oxford United on Saturday, and yet they managed to score two quality team goals before defending with great spirit and determination once their flowing football deserted them.

It must be pointed out that Oxford hogged possession and territory after being reduced to 10 men by Northants referee Andy Woolmer (more on him later) with over 30 minutes to play so it was far from a vintage Posh display.

Some of the game management was iffy with a lack of cool heads painfully obvious, but other characteristics got them over the line.

But Posh have played well away from London Road this season and suffered unfortunate losses (Portsmouth and Derby for a start) so they should be allowed to bask in the glory of a win that wasn’t exactly easy on the eye.

OTHER POSH TALKING POINTS FROM OXFORD…

1) It shouldn’t be overlooked the hassle Posh manager Grant McCann suffered before he could name a side to start at Oxford. He apparently didn’t finalise it until Saturday morning which must have been frustrating for such a meticulous planner. He made two defensive changes, two midfield alterations and two of the three forwards were changed from the last League One game and yet all the newcomers slotted into their allocated positions seamlessly. That’s good coaching and good management. Any problems came from errors on the ball and not because of unfamiliarity with their roles. McCann’s one failing in this game was not employing his block of three substitutions until the 80th minute when Posh had been struggling for a good 15 minutes or so.

2) The form of Ephron Mason-Clark on his first Football League start at the age of 23 was the individual highlight of the game. He played in Ricky-Jade Jones’ position on the left of the front three and lost nothing in comparison with the teenage speedster. He was direct, quick enough and with the composure to pick out players in the middle rather than just slamming a cross across. Two assists was a fair reward for his first-half display.

3) Posh must stay on the front for longer than 30 minutes of every away game. They are not strong enough to defensively to sit back and protect a lead comfortably. It took a remarkable goalline clearance from Ronnie Edwards to keep Posh in front against 10 men yesterday. If that had gone in and the game had been drawn against depleted opponents the reaction post-match would have been very different to the badge-thumping celebrations we did witness.

4) Kell Watts has to start. I can only assume he wasn’t fully fit yesterday. He’s a left-footed centre-back who can defend strongly while using the ball wisely and there aren’t many of them lurking in League One. Edwards started on the left yesterday alongside Frankie Kent, although it appears Josh Knight was left on the bench for fitness rather than form reasons. He would have been unlucky to miss out for any other reason.

5) Jack Taylor arriving in the penalty area to score goals is an obvious tactic and one I hope we see more of as the season progresses. He’s a good size with two good feet. He should get 10 goals a season at this level given high levels of freedom.

6) Referee Andy Woolmer made a mess of this game. He was soft when cautions should have been administered in the early stages and then decided every contact was a foul towards the end. His handling of the red card incident was baffling. He was looking straight at Matty Taylor and Edwards when they tangled and quite rightly gave Oxford a free kick. It didn’t look like he was going to take any futher action even efter Edwards collapsed holding his face. A melee ensued which should have led to other bookings (bizarrely Edwards was the only one to get one) and then an assistant referee decided Taylor should receive a red card when he couldn’t have had as good a view as Woolmer. He also didn’t add enough time on at the end for endless delays as the irritating habit of players sitting down asking for treatment when in no obvious discomfort reared it’s ugly head again. Six minutes were added when 10 would have been more accurate.