As any Forest supporter who doesn’t live in Nottingham will attest, there is something refreshing about attending a game which the Reds play in your town. The stressful nature of having to drive/cram on to a train/sweat buckets in a coach for 50+ Miles (even for a ‘home’ game!) is gone and you can enjoy the day much more freely. So, when Forest announced they’d be making a pre-season trip to ‘rustic’ London Road, I jumped at the chance, in spite of some rather shocking ticket prices.

So after a relaxing morning of rolling out of bed at a reasonable hour, drinking a couple of pints of Hoegaarden and indulging in some Thai cuisine at Peterborough’s finest boozer, the Brewery Tap, myself and the good lady wife made the short journey to the rather old stadium.

Clearly, a great many fans were put off by Posh’s baffling pricing policy – £23 for seating, £17 for the terraces – as a maximum of 200 Forest Fans were present, a far cry from the league game last season when there was barely room to breathe in the Moyes End.

Pre-match warm-up started and there was ripple of excitement as a player came running out in the number 3 shirt, before we realised it was Matt Thornhill, strangely sporting the number made famous by Psycho, and not a new left-back. Billy then made his way across to the terrace, shaking hands, signing autographs and thanking us for our support. It was surprising to see a full first-team squad being put through it’s paces, as I’d expected more of the players to be lads from the Academy, with a game going on simultaneously at Kidderminster.

The game itself was standard pre-season fare, no-one was really getting stuck in too much and a couple of players seemed to be trying to avoid injury as much as anything. Posh looked the sharper team in the early going, which is unsurprising, considering they already had two full first-team games against West Ham and Villa under their belts.

The opening goal came quite soon into the game. A cross from the useful looking Leicester reject James Wesolovski looked as though it was going too high for the vertically challenged Posh strikers, but a leap from Aaron McLean that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a basketball court resulted in him heading the ball back across the box. George Boyd, with his marker Chris Gunter nowhere in sight, reacted quickest and fired the ball around Lee Camp for the inevitable goal.

Shortly after the goal, Joel Lynch went down injured and was replaced by Brendon Moloney. The back four re-shuffled with Chris Gunter moving to centre-back. With Cohen already out of position at left-back and Blackstock seemingly trying to impersonate a right-winger, the team was looking very patched up.

The game petered out after that, Earnshaw had a penalty appeal turned down and thereafter did his best impression of the invisible man, Cohen could have scored with a surging run from left-back but for an absolute last-ditch tackle from the impressive former Chelsea youth Seth Nana Ofori-Twumasi, and Camp had a long-range shot from Grant McCann to keep out. But both sides will be happier with the defensive side of their games than the creative side at the moment. The other ‘Forest reject’ Arron Davies was more like the Davies we were used to seeing at the City Ground – totally ineffective.

Player ratings

1. Lee Camp – 6
Couldn’t be faulted for the goal. Made an excellent full-stretch save from McCann, but had little to do beyond that.

16. Chris Gunter – 7
I know it’s customary to have a scapegoat for every goal Forest ever concede and Boyd was Gunter’s man and he was caught flat-footed by an excellent header from McLean which set up the ‘revenge’ goal. He recovered well though and turned in a solid performance in spite of being switched to centre-back after the early injury to Lynch. The fact that Posh created nothing after the goal is testament to just how solid he was.

15. Chris Cohen – 8 Man of The Match
Again, many won’t agree with me, because of the out-of-position thing, but when he’s not being pressured by opposing attackers, Cohen is an excellent full-back. His performance was punctuated by some surging runs forward and probably could have had a goal but for an excellent last-ditch tackle.

33. Joel Lynch – 5
Didn’t look comfortable against the tricky and hard-working Posh strikers. Was beaten a couple of times before succumbing to injury after 15 minutes.

4. Luke Chambers – 7
Lead the makeshift back four by example. Looks lighter than he did last-season, which was an advantage against the pacey, but not very big Posh front-line. Remains to be seen if he’s lost strength as a result. Solid performance.

7. Paul Anderson – 7
Looked the player most likely to provide a spark and was full of running, but disappeared for short periods in the game. When he did get the ball. He did look dangerous.

19. Guy Moussi – 5
As the more ‘forward’ of the midfield pairing with McKenna, offered little in the way of creativity. Plenty of effort, but unfocussed ‘headless chicken’ style effort…

18. Paul McKenna (C) – 6
Broke up play in an effective manner – usual performance from the skipper.

23. Dexter Blackstock – 4
Seemed to be playing on the right-wing, certainly in the first half. Hugely ineffective.

10. Rob Earnshaw – 3
Seemed to disappear from the game completely after an early penalty was turned down. I only realised he was still playing when he was subbed on 66 minutes.

9. Dele Adebola – 4
Lumbered around the pitch offering very little in the way of attacking threat.

Subs

21. Paul Smith – 6 (For Camp, 60 minutes)
Like Camp before him had very little to do.

2. Brendan Moloney – 7 (For Lynch, 15 minutes)
Doesn’t look out of place in the first team. Dealt well with a tricky customer in Boyd and wasn’t afraid to go forwards, although his crossing wasn’t great.

12. Garath McLeary – 6 (For Adebola, 65 minutes)
Came on, danced around a few players and then lost the ball before offering any threat. A typical Garath performance.

28. Raddy Majewski – 6 (For McKenna, Half-time)
Injected some urgency and creativity in the midfield, but seemed to playing much deeper than usual, where McKenna would usually be positioned. This seemed to be a deliberate instruction and whilst he wasn’t able to support the strikers as a result, he was able to demonstrate his excellent range of passing.

3.Matt Thornhill – 6 (For Earnshaw, 66 Minutes)
Like Moloney, seems to have developed from where he was 12 months ago and looks like he has the makings of a good player.