It was a tale of woe at the Weston Homes Stadium for Rovers, as Tony Mowbray’s men saw their playoff dreams drift further and further away following a lacklustre performance against relegation-threatened Peterborough United, who themselves fought valiantly to boost their hopes of survival.
After Rovers were held at home by Blackpool, via a 1-1 draw, Tony Mowbray made three changes for this Good Friday clash – with one enforced – as Tayo Edun came into midfield to replaced Joe Rothwell who was ruled out with an illness. The other two changes, which were voluntarily, saw Ryan Giles take the place of Harry Pickering, who was on the bench, whilst John Buckley got the nod ahead of Tyrhys Dolan, who was also available for Rovers from reserve. As kick-off approached, Lewis Travis was set to make his 150th career appearance, whilst Ryan Nyambe went one better than his fellow academy graduate by notching up 200 career appearances.
As 3pm approached and the players made their way onto the pitch, the nerves arose around the Weston Homes Stadium ahead of what was a crunch tie for both sides, with both teams hanging on for dear life at both ends of the table.
Rovers started the quicker of the two teams as the away side managed to fashion a chance inside three minutes as Ryan Giles’ corner fell to Ben Brereton Díaz via a touch from Tayo Edun, but the Chilean failed to test goalkeeper, David Cornell.
In the 5th minute, Harrison Burrows managed to fashion an attempt, but saw his attempt from range drag wide harmlessly.
Three minutes later, Lewis Travis managed to find Sam Gallagher who saw his first-time shot parried by Cornell, only as far as Brereton Díaz who won a corner after his effort was blocked behind, but Posh managed to clear the danger.
In the 11th minute, the home side looked to try and capitalise on a miscued header from Jan Paul van Hecke, as Sammie Szmodics had an effort from range saved by Thomas Kaminski.
Peterborough United then managed to enter a small spell of dominance as Kwame Poku was sent through on goal, but saw his angled effort parried by Kaminski, before Rovers cleared.
Rovers’ Chilean forward, Brereton Díaz picked up the ball from distance and tried to add another late contender for Rovers’ Goal of the Season, but his accuracy didn’t match his ambition as the ball trailed wide.
In the 22nd minute, Tayo Edun was cautioned for halting a swift Peterborough counter-attack.
Moments later, Burrows again tried to break the deadlock, but his attempt went straight down the throat of Kaminski.
After half-an-hour, Rovers thought they’d got themselves ahead via Ben Brereton Díaz’s first goal in 2022 after he expertly nodded home John Buckley’s fine cross, but referee, Chris Kavanagh deemed that the attacker had pushed his marker, and ruled the goal out.
Darragh Lenihan was caught dallying on the ball in the 36th minute before he was pickpocketed by Szmodics who tried to beat Kaminski on the turn, but the former Bristol City midfielder failed to get his shot on target.
Jonson Clarke-Harris soon got in on the action, as he forced Kaminski into the best save of the game, thus far. The former Bristol Rovers forward managed to connect on the end of a pass and volley the ball into the turf, as it bounced towards goal, but the Belgian in the Rovers goal was on-hand to tip the ball over the crossbar.
In the 41st minute, Tayo Edun was given his marching orders by Chris Kavanagh after going into a tackle, which he mistimed. Although the dismissal was for a second yellow, the damage was the same with Rovers forced to reshuffle, as moments after the change, Bradley Johnson came on to replace Ryan Nyambe, as Rovers moved to four-back system.
As the first period edged to a close, referee Chris Kavanagh added on three extra minutes onto the end of the first-half, but with little to no goalmouth action, that time quickly flew by as the whistle to end the first period soon came.
Peterborough United and their manager Grant McCann would have been pleased with how they had operated in the first period. Although they had had a bit of luck with the goal being disallowed, they had a whole 45 minutes ahead of them in which they could play with the extra man, which would have spread confidence throughout the home dressing room. The former Hull City gaffer would have been calling for his players to continue what they were doing, but to up the intensity to try and stretch Rovers as much as possible.
Tony Mowbray would have been forgiven for being completely confused during the break. After seeing a goal wrongly ruled out, he then saw his team needlessly go down to 10 men, leaving themselves in the lurch at such a crucial point in the campaign. The Rovers boss would have been having stern words with his side during the break as they looked to try and turn their fortunes around and revive their playoff hopes.
Just before the start of the second-half, Rovers made a second change as Bradley Dack replaced Sam Gallagher. With the change made, the second period was soon started with many in the away end hoping that Rovers can resurrect their playoff hopes by snatching three points.
In the 51st minute, Rovers were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the Peterborough area, with Jeando Fuchs being booked before the set-piece was taken, but Bradley Dack sent the free-kick straight into the wall, as it was soon cleared behind for a corner.
From the corner, Darragh Lenihan drilled the ball back into the box which led to a goalmouth scramble with Bradley Johnson in the mix, before the Posh defence managed to scramble the ball behind for another corner, which the home side soon dealt with.
After Frankie Kent stormed forward, he found Ricky-Jade Jones who let one fly towards goal, but Kaminski again proved his worth as he kept his clean-sheet intact.
On the hour mark, Jan Paul van Hecke did well to deny Poku from threatening the Rovers goal as he twice denied the Ghanaian with blocks.
After the ball was blocked behind, Posh made their first change of the day as Jack Marriott came on to replace Ricky-Jade Jones.
In the 65th minute, Jack Marriott got his first sniff at goalmouth action, but Kaminski again stood firm to deny the home side.
Rovers soon made their final change in the 72nd minute as Tyrhys Dolan replaced John Buckley.
A minute later, Joel Randall soon came onto the pitch to replace the booked Jeando Fuchs.
In the 74th minute, Kaminski was again on-hand to deny Peterborough the lead after newly arrived substitute Joel Randall saw his long-range effort trickle into the Belgian’s hands.
With the game growing increasingly tighter by the minute, Rovers were finally able to put some daylight between the sides, despite being down to 10 men. After van Hecke delivered a fantastic ball down the right-hand channel, Ben Brereton Díaz controlled the dinked pass well before delivering a thumping strike past David Cornell at the near-post, as the Chilean wheeled away in celebration of his first goal of the calendar year which put Rovers, 1-0 up.
It only took six minutes for the scoring to be tied once more, as Sammie Szmodics kept the host’s feint hopes of survival alive by finding the goal that equalised the game at 1-1. A flick by Burrows was enough to bamboozle the Rovers defence, as Szmodics did well to take the ball into his stride and finally beat Kaminski with a driven finish that nestled perfectly into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.
After a goalmouth scramble in the 86th minute which saw Kaminski superbly keep out Randall, Rovers failed to clear their lines and were made to pay after Jack Marriott put the hosts ahead with a left-footed piledriver that didn’t give Kaminski a chance, as the ball flew into the top corner. With that 2-1 lead, the home side strengthened their chances of staying up.
In the 89th minute, the Posh made their final change of the game as Reece Brown replaced Kwame Poku.
As the 90th minute approached, Chris Kavanagh added on five extra minutes of time, but despite a late attempt by van Hecke, who saw his header from a Ryan Giles cross veer wide of the mark, Rovers failed to muster up anything worth shouting about as the game metaphorically summed up Rovers’ season.
There’s not much to discuss when it comes to this game. Barring the opening five minutes, Rovers never looked like they had the passion or desire to get three points and were ultimately beaten by the will to fight for survival. Two poor performances on the bounce have left lots of fans questioning and calling for the head of manager Tony Mowbray, despite there still being an outside chance of qualifying for the playoffs.
Speaking of qualifying for the playoffs, the goal is still within reach for Rovers, mathematically, given how results around Mowbray’s side have gone today. Rovers sit 8th in the division with 63 points from 42 games played and a positive goal-difference of +9. After Sheffield United lost to Reading today, the Blades who are in 6th are two points ahead of Rovers – with Middlesbrough sandwiched in 7th. With four games of the season remaining, it’ll certainly be a lively end to the campaign, whichever way you look at it.
With those final four games in mind, Rovers now have quite an intense schedule between now and the end of the season, with them back in action on Easter Monday – 18th April – as Stoke City travel to Lancashire for their 3pm kick-off. After that tie, Rovers stay in Lancashire, but make the short from to Deepdale to battle with Preston North End the Monday after. The game, which will be broadcasted live on Sky Sports, is on 25th April, with kick-off scheduled for 7:30pm. Rovers’ penultimate game of the season – and their final one at Ewood Park for this campaign – comes on Saturday 30th April, where Rovers will host Scott Parker’s automatic promotion-chasing Bournemouth at 3pm, before wrapping up the campaign away at St. Andrew’s against Birmingham City on Saturday 7th May at 12:30pm.
