Peterborough United vs Blackpool. Sky Bet Championship.
Weston Homes StadiumAttendance9,118.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Peterborough and Blackpool at the Weston Homes Stadium as the Posh bowed out from the second tier with an emphatic victory.
Saturday 7 May 2022 17:08, UK
Sammie Szmodics scored twice as already-relegated Peterborough bowed out of the Championship with a thumping 5-0 victory against a much-changed Blackpool at London Road.
Posh's fate had been sealed two weeks ago, but a disappointing year in the second tier was at least rounded off by what was comfortably their biggest win of it.
Unlike them, Blackpool have another season at this level to look forward to, but they were never at the races after making seven alterations to the team beaten by Derby in their final home game of the campaign.
Peterborough worked the game's first opening after four minutes when Harrison Burrows fed the ball inside for Jack Taylor, whose shot was pushed behind by Chris Maxwell.
The Blackpool goalkeeper was soon called upon again when he needed to get down to his right to keep out a dipping and swerving effort by the marauding Ricky-Jade Jones.
Jonson Clarke-Harris was then the latest to be denied by Maxwell as Posh controlled the opening stages.
Following a good break by Kwame Poku, Jones sent in a good cross from the left that was met by a Taylor header that Maxwell did well to claw away to safety.
The hosts continued to be frustrated by the visiting captain when Maxwell had to have his wits about him at his near post to turn Szmodics' effort aside.
But Peterborough's dominance was finally rewarded after 36 minutes when Poku's pass put Clarke-Harris through on goal and he rounded Maxwell before calmly finishing his 12th goal of the campaign.
Blackpool finally had a chance of their own five minutes before half-time when Callum Connolly stabbed wide from close range after Kevin Stewart had lifted the ball through.
The Posh had a chance to double their lead eight minutes into the second half when Poku tricked his way past Stewart before blasting over from a tricky angle.
Just when the game had started to drift, Peterborough did go 2-0 ahead after 62 minutes when Jones chipped a nice ball over the Blackpool defence for Szmodics to slide a low shot past Maxwell.
A lovely move then led to the Posh's third as Poku played a good pass through for Burrows on the left and his first-time ball across goal gave Szmodics a tap-in as he grabbed his second of a comfortable afternoon.
Burrows then was given all the time in the world to cross from the left and an unmarked Jack Marriott cushioned in a volley, 10 minutes after stepping from the bench.
There was still time for Taylor to score the best of the bunch when, with the crowd willing him to shoot, he curled an absolute beauty into the top corner from 25 yards.
Peterborough's Grant McCann: "We've been working on that, just the reaction from when we lose the ball - I thought we were good on that today. I thought we were on the front foot in everything we did, we limited them to very few opportunities on our goal and hopefully we can take that, moving forward.
"Today was about sending the fans home happy with a little bit of positivity. That, today, was for them. I felt a little bit embarrassed, a little bit ashamed walking around at the end. We've shown our appreciation to the fans but it just didn't feel right, so hopefully next season we can walk around with a different sort of feeling. The front four were very, very good today, so it was a real good team performance, some really good goals. All in all, it was a real good day at the office today."
Blackpool's Neil Critchley: "Not like us at all. We saved our worst performance until the last game of the season. We were miles off it today, just miles off it, not good enough all over the pitch in possession or out of possession, defending the goal, the goals we gave away, we didn't look like scoring. We just weren't good enough. That's the first time in my two years here that I question the appetite and the application of the players.
"It'll leave a bitter taste in the mouth over the next six weeks before we start back for pre-season, but I also have to have some perspective as well. It probably tells you how well we've done over the previous 45 games that we've never been in that situation before, and it can happen in this division. Unfortunately, it has happened to us today."
