Football: Peterborough United 6 - 0 Rochdale

Rochdale were thrashed by a clinical Peterborough on a day to forget for Brian Barry-Murphy’s side on Saturday (14 September).

In a mistake-ridden 90 minutes, Peterborough’s forwards had a field day with Ivan Toney netting a hat-trick whilst Mo Eisa scored the second goal of the match. Sky Bet League One player of the month for August, Marcus Maddison added two to his season tally as Dale went down to their heaviest defeat since 2006.

After the enforced lay-off due to the International break, Brian Barry-Murphy opted for the same team that beat Southend a fortnight ago but coming up against a Peterborough side that would be completely different proposition.

The hosts started on the front foot with Toney showing his intentions early on when he glanced a header narrowly wide of the mark after just 60 seconds.

Toney opened the scoring in the 18th minute after a howler from goalkeeper Robert Sanchez. Jim McNulty’s back-pass to the Spaniard saw the keeper put under pressure from Toney but, rather than smack the ball away, Sanchez opted to take on the forward who just prodded the ball over the line from a yard out.

Sanchez seemingly made up for his mistake when he brilliantly beat away Mo Eisa’s powerful shot.

The second goal came after another mistake, this time by McNulty. The defender, in trying to run the ball out of play, was put under pressure and as he clipped the ball down the line, it was intercepted by Louis Reed. The winger picked out Joe Ward's run into the area before clipping a cross towards Eisa who headed home in off the right-hand post.

On the stroke of half-time the game was over as a contest as Peterborough made it 3-0. Marcus Maddison’s brilliant through ball to Toney saw the striker in acres of space, keeping his cool to round the onrushing Sanchez and slot into the empty net.

If Rochdale were to get back into the game, they needed a response after the break but another mistake gave Maddison the chance get in on the scoring just 7 minutes after the re-start. Sanchez was again a little slow to clear with his under-pressure pass finding Maddison, and with the keeper off his line, the 25-year-old sent a delightful lob over the back-peddling keeper to make it 4-0.

Rochdale rarely threatened, although they had a short spell when Ian Henderson saw his rising shot fly over the crossbar whilst Rhys Norrington-Davies sent in a delightful cross from the left; nobody in a Dale shirt getting close enough to make a connection.

It looked like damage limitation from Barry-Murphy’s side but another error saw Peterborough extend their lead. Jim McNulty’s weak header back towards the goalkeeper was seized upon by Toney who made sure of the match-ball with a clinical first-time finish underneath Sanchez.

5-0 became 6-0 just three minutes later when referee Darren Drysdale awarded a penalty to Peterborough. Marcus Maddison was too strong for Jimmy Keohane as the two tussled for the ball and as Maddison made headway towards goal, Eoghan O’Connell came rushing in, catching the Peterborough man.

Maddison dusted himself down to smack the penalty into the net sending Sanchez the wrong way and finish the scoring.

 

Rochdale: Sanchez, Keohane, O’Connell, McNulty, Norrington-Davies, MJ Williams, Morley (Rathbone 52), Dooley, Pyke (Ryan 63), Camps, Henderson © (Andrew 69)
Subs: (not used) Lynch, Done, Tavares, Matheson

Peterborough: Pym, Mason (Thompson 59), Beevers ©, Kent, Butler, Knight, Ward, Reed, Maddison (Dembele 73), Toney (Tasdemir 73), Eisa
Subs: (not used) O’Malley, Bennett, Kanu, Burrows

Referee: Mr D Drysdale
Assistants: Mr S Butler & Mr O Mackey
Fourth Official: Mr M Smith

Attendance: 5,733