Addison turns from villain to hero on Posh debut as Barnsley edged out again
ByPA Sport
Published 25/11/2015 at 00:12 GMT
Peterborough boss Graham Westley praised the performance of debutant Miles Addison as his side closed to within a point of the play-offs after a 3-2 home win against Barnsley.
Former Derby defender Miles Addison had an eventful debut for Peterborough
Image credit: PA Sport
Peterborough boss Graham Westley praised the performance of debutant Miles Addison as his side closed to within a point of the play-offs after a 3-2 home win against Barnsley.
Addison conceded a penalty and scored a goal in his first competitive game since May to help Peterborough secure a fourth successive win as they handed out a ninth defeat in 10 games to struggling Barnsley.
Westley said: "It's a huge credit to Miles that he could get through 90 minutes in his first game for so long. His body will be in bits.
"I feared we might get into the situation where we were short of numbers defensively due to picking up a lot of cards and a couple of injuries.
"Ok, he conceded a penalty, but we can certainly forgive him one error and he bounced back from that by sticking the ball in the net at the other end.
"It is fantastic to see the character of this young team show through. We had to come through some very nervous minutes at the end.
"It was all about determination and resilience. We are managing to pick up very welcome points without producing the best performances."
Top-scorer Lee Angol fired Westley's side ahead in the 24th minute, but their advantage was wiped out seven minutes before the break when Conor Hourihane converted from the penalty spot after Addison had tripped Marley Watkins.
Barnsley captain Alfie Mawson saw a header ruled out for offside early in the second half before Addison went from villain to hero when restoring the home side's lead by heading in substitute Marcus Maddison's 62nd-minute corner.
Maddison soon found the net himself with a deflected blast 11 minutes later, but Barnsley quickly hit back when substitute Sam Winnall slammed home after the ball had twice struck the crossbar off the heads of Addison and Watkins.
But Barnsley's hopes of climbing out of the drop zone were dashed when Kevin Long was dismissed with eight minutes to go for a two-footed challenge.
The woodwork denied Angol and Jermaine Anderson further Peterborough goals late on while goalkeeper Ben Alnwick twice had to produce outstanding saves to deny Adam Hammill a last-gasp equaliser in stoppage time.
Barnsley manager Lee Johnson blasted the performance of referee Nicholas Kinseley.
He said: "I cannot fault the lads apart from maybe one player. We went for it even when down to 10 men.
"I don't want to blame the referee because people shout at you and moan, but Peterborough should have had two or three players gone themselves for picking up two yellow cards.
"We had a goal disallowed that wasn't even offside and he hasn't gave us advantages several times. There were just too many things and he's had a really poor performance.
"But I don't want to focus on that because I want to concentrate on how good the players and the fans were."
Scan me
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement