London Road: Peterborough United 2-0 Leicester City

Sunday 29 March 2009

Peterborough United 2-0 Leicester City

Birdseye view of London Road (Live Maps)

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 7/10

Ease of getting there : 8/10

Atmosphere : 10/10

Programme : 8/10

View of Action : 6/10

Quality of the game : 7/10

The "football" feeling : 8/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 6/10

Legroom : N/A

Surrounding area : 4/10

Overall : 64/100

The Programme cover

The Norwich & Peterborough south stand

London Road Terrace

Main Stand

Our 4,000 travelling supporters

The back of the Moyes End Terrace

The back of the Main Stand

The Cathedral from London Road

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Peterborough United 4-0 Oxford United

It's been over 10 years since our last match at London Road so we were well overdue a visit. During our previous visit in March 2009, Peterborough United beat League 1 leaders Leicester City 2-0 in an early kick-off with both sides finishing the season in the top two and ultimate promotion to the Championship.

The Posh and the U's have been in fine form this season with both sides chasing promotion to the Championship so a competitive match was expected. Both sides lost key players during the January transfer window with Marcus Maddison going on loan from Peterborough to Hull (with a permanent deal expected in the summer) and Shandon Baptiste & Tariqe Fosu leaving on permanent deals from Oxford to Brentford. The U's took Newcastle United to extra time in their midweek FA Cup replay at the Kassam Stadium so a few changes were expected.

I (Ross) left home at 9.30am reaching Adrian's house at 10am. We then took the A47 all the way towards Peterborough. Before we approached Peterborough, we first stopped for a visit to Yaxley FC.
We were kindly given a tour around the facilities at Yaxley which had seen significant investment over recent years and it's clearly well ran by volunteers.

Following our warm welcome at the Decker Bus Stadium, we took the A15 all the way to London Road. We parked the car on Park Street which is just a 5-minute walk from the ground. With the sun shining, we decided to walk around the ground in order to take some photos before heading towards Charter's Bar which is a barge moored off the River Nene. Adrian wanted to meet up with an old friend, Clive, who supports Oxford United. We stopped for a beer and had some lunch before walking into the City Centre. After a brief look at the Cathedral and the Queensgate shopping centre, we walked back towards the football ground and made our way through the turnstiles.
Whilst in the ground, by chance we bumped into my Mum's cousin's husband, David, who stood with us on the London Road Terrace.

London Road (currently known as the Weston Homes Stadium) has a capacity of 15,314. The current record attendance is 14,110, which was set during their clash with Leicester City in 2009 which ironically was during our previous visit. In 1954, the London Road Terrace was refurbished with new covered terracing. The next stand to be built was the current Main Stand. Originally built with 2,404 seats and standing room at the front, the new structure was constructed behind the old wooden stand. It was opened in time for the 1957–58 season. The wooden stand was demolished, leaving a gap of 30 yards between the new Main Stand and the pitch. The pitch was moved back the season after. Following the club's promotion to the First Division in 1992, the Main Stand was forced to undergo re-development. This was because the stadium's seated capacity was below the level required by the Taylor Report. To solve this problem, the stand's terraces were converted to seats. 700 of these new seats were bought second-hand from Leicester City following the re-development Filbert Street and another 300 seats were acquired from Millwall's stadium, The Den, following their move to a new stadium. The Main Stand's facilities were improved to include a pub, conference areas and a retail shop.
Due to increased support, a new stand was constructed on the Glebe Road side of the ground. The two-tiered South Stand, with a capacity of 5,000, opened in time for the end of the 1995–96 season. This stand is currently known as the Family Stand.
The new millennium saw the London Road Terrance fitted with a new roof and crush barriers to comply with safety requirements.
In September 2010, plans were unveiled for a new stand to be constructed at the Moy's End. In December 2013, demolition work started on the Moy's End Terrace and a new all-seater stand was built in its place.

Peterborough United continued their impressive recent form with a 5th successive win, as the challenge for promotion gains momentum.
After a scrappy first 30 minutes, Posh took the lead. Oxford gave the ball away in the midfield and Szmodics released an excellent through ball for Dembele to fire home past Eastwood.
Peterborough could and should have extended their lead moments later, but Szmodics, Dembele and Butler saw efforts cleared off the line in frenzied goalmouth action.
Oxford were offering little and the home side continued to dominate the game into the second period, a great flowing move yielded a second goal in 57 mins.
The left wing-back Butler drove forward timed his pass superbly to the overlapping Sammie Szmodics whose first time cross from the left was poked home by the telescopic leg of League 1's top goalscorer Ivan Toney.
The game had several dramatic moments, 5 mins later, Peterborough defender Nathan Thompson fouled Oxford's Marcus Browne on the edge of the box and received a second yellow card and was sent off.
This incident caused an uproar in the respective dugouts where bottles of water were kicked over and the U's Kitman received a yellow card.
Thompson it seems has a poor disciplinary record, I believe it was his 8th card, and as a former Swindon player has apparently some history with Oxford.
Was the decision fair? we thought it was, the lad was already on a yellow card and gave the referee no choice.
In the first half, this same player deliberately fell to the ground under minimal contact with the opponent right in front of us and smiled. It gave his side a free-kick removing the attacking pressure although this type of activity goes on he was lucky to escape a talking to. We don’t like this type of attitude.
That withstanding, the fact that Peterborough were playing with 10 men was not noticeable at all.
On 77th minute, the home side made the game safe. Toney flicking home Butlers free-kick after a foul on Toney by Oxford's John Mousinho.
Both sides made substitutions and the visitors actually tested Christy Pym, Mackie's header being turned away and both Taylor with a header and Holland with a shot had efforts over the bar.
The referee who had, had an interesting game to say the least then decided to add on 9 minutes stoppage time. We thought we may have had 6 minutes but 9 minutes was rather excessive.
The result was never in doubt and Darren Ferguson’s side were clearly eager for a 4th goal with Oxford's tank empty and it duly arrived.
A racking long pass from Toney released Szmodics, who calmly controlled the ball squared it to young Josh Knight who kept his composure before scoring with his right foot.
A deserved win for Peterborough United as they challenge for promotion. As for Oxford United, the big FA Cup replay with Newcastle United and in addition selling two of their better players to Championship side Brentford on transfer deadline day seemed to have taken its toll. They were never in the game and the scoreline could have been more damaging.

After the match, we made a dash for the exit gates and back to the car. After navigating our way around Peterborough, we were back on the A47 in no time Leicester bound.
We reached Adrian's house at 6:30pm before I continued my journey reaching home half an hour later.

Peterborough United 2-0 Leicester City

London Road is home of Peterborough United (The Posh). Adrian and I caught the 9:30am bus from The Walkers Stadium to Peterborough. We finally reached Peterborough services where the police would lead us into the city. 11:45am - We were finally off the coach and crammed into the packed terrace for our 12noon kick off.

Peterborough deserved a 2-0 win. Leicester were awful which was a disappointment for our 4,000 travelling supporters. It was also Peterborough’s biggest attendance in modern time reaching 14,110 out of its capacity of 15,460. The last time I (Ross) saw Leicester City lose away was last year at the Ricoh Arena which was also a 2-0 loss against Coventry City. I can’t really complain!

In 1953, the new covered terracing behind the Moyes End goal with a matching facility following within a couple of years behind the London Road End goal.
By 1956, the steelwork for the pitch long main stand was taking shape behind the old wooden stand and the new stand, with over 2,404 seats and standing enclosures in front, was opened for the 1957-8 season. The old stand was demolished and throughout that campaign the pitch remained in its old position before being moved some 30 yards north.

This allowed a new standing terrace to be created on the Glebe Road side which later had four executive boxes, topped by a television platform, erected at the back. The modern look to London Road had been completed in February 1960 when Arsenal provided the opposition in a game to officially launch the ground's first floodlights, the actual switch on ceremony being performed by Football League chairman Joe Richards.

When Posh gained promotion to the new First Division after a Wembley play-off success in 1992, seated capacity was below the levels required by the Taylor report and the shortfall was solved by converting the Main Stand's standing enclosures with around 700 seats bought second hand from Leicester City, when they re-developed one of the Filbert Street stands, and with a further 300 seats from Millwall's Old Den.

By the mid-1990s Posh were looking to provide even more seats by building a completely new 5,000 capacity stand on Glebe Road side. The contract worth £1.4 million went to Lincoln contractors Linpave who had completed similar projects for Lincoln City and Burnley. The Football Trust contributed around £900,000 and the old terraces were demolished in the summer of 1995 and the new stand was brought into use for the final few games of the 1995-96 season.

The London Road and Moyes End terraces, little changed since completion in the 1950s, were re-roofed and fitted with extended crush barriers to comply with increased safety requirements.
The Cathedral can be seen from the London Road car park and is recommended a visit.

Sunday 29 March 2009

Peterborough United 2-0 Leicester City

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