Peterborough United U21 v. Birmingham City U21 - PDL2 U23
PDL2 U23 - Peterborough United U21 (1) 2 Ma’Kel Campbell 38, Trialist E v. Birmingham City U21 (2) 4 Ben Wodskou 19, 22, Alvaro Ruiz-Rente 58, Dan Isichei 78
Peterborough United U21: Bastian Smith, Trialist A, Trialist B, Eddie Fox (Patryk Sykut 45), Fabian Claxton Luke Gilbert 61), Jenson Sumnall, Benjy McWilliams-Marcano, Ma'kel Campbell, Trialist C (George Holley 79), Trialist D, Trialist E (Joe Davis 72). Unused sub - Ben Westcott.
Birmingham City U21: William O'Sullivan, Byron Pendleton (Captain), William Burrell, Godfred boakye, Trialist, Josh Home, Menzi Mazwi, Alvaro Ruiz-Rente (Briar Bateman 90+3), Daniel Isichei, Kurtis Havenhand (Cody Pennington 85), Ben Wodskou.Unused subs - Oliver Sayer, O'Shea Ellis, Laiith Fairnie.
Bloody hell! London Road! Again!? People are going to start talking about me and Posh at this rate. No! No! Not her! Right, let's start by getting the oldest corny football joke in the entire history of the game out of the way from the outset. This afternoon Peterborough went into this game with five members of the same family in their starting eleven… the Trialist’s. Their other brother was playing for Steve Spooner’s Blues. Ha! Ha! Ha! 🙄 Hilarious, eh!? Well, it might have been the first hundred or so times that you heard it before.
To attend these sort of games at Peterborough United one must first purchase a ticket (card payment only, London Road is a cashless stadium). You would have thought that it might possibly be good practice to have somebody present at the sales window, during the thirty minutes leading up to kick-off. But a young lady eventually appeared and after first checking that I had a previous booking history with Posh, let me buy a ticket for an outlay of a mere one-hundred pence.
A friendly steward inside the ground was walking around the main stand seats distributing free team-sheets, while informing people that: “Birmingham made a late change after we’d printed them. Number 8 is on the bench now and 11 is starting in his place”. But neglected to say that some of the spellings might be a little ‘guestimated’. At least Posh had made the effort to produce some paperwork for everyone present, no doubt while struggling to read the spider-scrawl hieroglyphics on the original handwritten manuscripts that both teams had submitted.
Ben Wodskou, on his return from a loan spell at Rushall Olympic, had the first chance of the game for Blues, but his shot across the face of the Posh goal narrowly evaded the right-hand upright. The home side looked threatening during the early part of the game, but it was Wodskou who opened the scoring. Trialist beat his marker out on the right-hand side of the pitch, before picking out Alvaro Ruiz-Rente who’s scissor-kick was blocked, but the loose ball fell to Wodskou, who lashed it into the far corner of the net.
Just minutes later, Wodskou added a second, forcing the ball home from Byron Pendleton’s cut-back from the dead-ball line, following his run through the left channel, deep into Posh’s area. The impressive Blues number 20, almost bagged a first-half hat-trick, but once again he skimmed the outside of the oost after dragging the ball across Bastian Smith in the Posh goal.
In between times Trialist D had a headed goal disallowed after straying offside, but with half-time approaching he squared the ball to Posh captain Ma'Kel Campbell, who netted from the edge of the six-yard box. I’ve tried to clarify whether the K after the apostrophe in Ma’Kel, should be upper or lower case, but even on the Peterborough website it’s spelt both ways, so I’ve had a bleedin’ guess and gone with which I think looks most likely to be correct. HT: 1-2
Blues started the second-half on the front foot and thirteen minutes after the restart, Ruiz-Rente squeezed a header just inside the back-post from Josh Home's well delivered corner. Benjy McWilliams-Marcano drilled a chance a fraction wide of the target at the other end, as the hosts pushed to get back into the game, while Will O'Sullivan did well to keep out Campbell's low-shot from the edge of the area. A freak-goal saw Posh reduce the arrears, when Trialist E’s miscued cross ended up finding it’s way into Blues goal. A topless Barry Fry (I kid you not), taking the opportunity to enjoy a spot of sunbathing at the game, would no doubt have claimed that Trialist E had deliberately meant to score in such a manner.
Wodskou had a shot cleared off the line as Blues looked to restore their two-goal cushion. The fourth goal duly arrived in the 78th minute, after Menzi Mazwi scrapped to win possession, before feeding the ball forward to Dan Isichei, who cut inside before curling the ball into the top-right corner of the goal beyond the reach of Smith. A string of chances went begging as Blues piled on the pressure, as they finished the game on a high, but the score remained: FT: Posh U21 2 v. Blues U21 4. Good game! Good game! Let's have a look at the old scoreboard…
