Peterborough took control of their playoff tie as they produced one of the most comfortable football scores of the midweek action in League One. At Weston Homes Stadium, Jack Taylor and Joe Ward scored goals in the first half, while Kwame Poku and Jonson Clarke-Harris added goals in the second half to erase the 19-point difference between these two teams’ regular-season standings. To avoid exiting at the semi-final stage like they did last year, Wednesday will have a mountain to climb in the second leg at Hillsborough on Thursday. And Darren Moore won’t be unaware that Peterborough’s initial intrusion into the playoffs was made possible by his team’s victory over Derby on the last day of the regular season.
In the 155-year history of the club, Sheffield Wednesday concluded the season with 96 points, more than any other team to never place in the top two of an English league. But since it’s the playoffs, anything might happen, and all that effort was rendered useless in just 50 minutes. The Posh got on the board after 20 minutes when a Taylor shot slid in at the near post past Cameron Dawson, who really should have handled it much better.
In 36 minutes, the advantage had doubled. Even worse for the Owls was that Ward’s daring 25-yard effort took a significant deflection off of Marvin Johnson and managed to loop past Dawson and into the goal. Soon after the interval, Poku scored a third goal for Peterborough, heading in from a yard away after Ephron Mason-Clark sent in a deceiving cross from the left wing. Lee Gregory and Dennis Adeniran were added, while Darren Moore made adjustments. However, things would only get worse on Wednesday because Clarke-Harris nodded in from close range to make it four in the last moments.
“In situations like these, the opening goal is usually crucial, and I must add that my custodian has made a fantastic save with the score at 0-0. That may have altered how the game turned out. However, my guys were exceptional. It was a really strong performance,” Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson said. “We did well to defeat Sheffield Wednesday 4-0, and I’m probably just as happy with the clean sheet as I am with the goals because set pieces force you to defend them. Unfortunately, just half of the game has been played. There isn’t and can’t be complacency. We intend to travel to Hillsborough and attempt to win the match. That’s the strategy we’ll employ and the mindset we’ve adopted. I believed we couldn’t lose in the tie, but we did, and we did so successfully.”
“Right now is a difficult night for us, and words would probably not come to mind if you tried to express how you feel. We must regroup and prepare for the coming week,” Sheffield Wednesday boss Darren Moore said. “In nine out of ten cases, Cameron Dawson handles mistakes that occur in games. Because it was a normal save, the only thing we can think of when emotions are a little more heightened on a night like today is a little break in focus. When you are two goals behind, the following goal was always going to be critical because of the other goal and the deflected shot. At halftime, we had a conversation with them about it, but after that, the game got away from us.”
“That kind of outcome surprised me much. That demonstrates the damage Peterborough may cause. They can absolutely destroy you if they score that first goal. They excelled and deservedly took home the prize. They went after Peterborough and were smacked on the counter, contrary to what I had anticipated when they fell behind,” Plymouth boss Steven Schumacher said. “Peterborough just blew me away. Their ferocity during the break and the speed with which they retaliated. In terms of how he transformed the course of this team and led them into the play-offs, Darren Ferguson deserves a great deal of credit. He has strengthened their defence and given those offensive players we saw tonight a platform. The speed of their front four was too much for Sheffield Wednesday to handle.”
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