Tuesday 5 March 2013

Peterborough United 2 v Charlton Athletic 2

Needless to say, a much better Charlton performance at London Road this evening as we took a point with a battling 2-2 draw. Chris Solly returned to defence following illness which meant Lawrie Wilson could be deployed down the right flank. Leon Cort was rested for Matt Taylor and Calum Harriott got a first start alongside Jackson and Pritchard. Haynes and Fuller retained their striking berths.

After going a goal down in the first-half slightly against the run of play, we struck twice soon after the break through Jackson and Haynes to take the lead but Peterborough fought back and grabbed an equaliser through Bostwick after 71 minutes as David Button let a bouncing shot beat him. There were chances for both sides before the final whistle but Chris Powell will be satisfied with the performance as much as the point.

It's from here on that the results of the sides around us become as important as our own and generally good news this evening. Millwall lost at home again and drop beneath us on goal difference. The bad news is that it was Wolves who beat them and who move out of the bottom three and within five points of us. Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday both lost away from home and Birmingham and Blackpool shared the points at St Andrews. Saturday's opponents Huddersfield rallied with two goals in the last five minutes to beat Middlesbrough 2-1.

We have a six point cushion over Barnsley in the last of the relegation places but more importantly, there are six sides sandwiched between us. I reckon we need three more wins to be sure of Championship football although two will probably do it. Huddersfield have the worst goal difference in the division, so we should be positive again and take the game to them on Saturday. A win there would put us in fine fettle for the grudge match against the Lions who may well be feeling the heat by then. They have a game in hand and will pick up another after their F A Cup game on Sunday but they will likely find themselves a couple of places closer to the sticky stuff by then.

If we had managed to hang on to the victory this evening, we would have been up to 12th. Funny old division this year.

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