Peterborough United 2-3 Bristol City: Martin scores late winner for Bristol City
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Bristol City's Chris Martin scored his fourth goal of the season so far at Peterborough
A late Chris Martin goal ensured Bristol City continued their strong record away from home in the Championship by winning a thriller at Peterborough United.
In a first half packed with four goals, Peterborough were the first to strike through Sammie Szmodics, before a Nathan Thompson own goal brought the visitors level.
George Tanner put City ahead shortly after, with his first goal for the Robins, before Szmodics headed in his second to level things at the break.
Martin then found the winner with six minutes to go, scoring his fourth goal of the season to give Bristol City their fourth win on the road of the campaign.
For an opening half that ended with four goals, the first 15 minutes were defined by the lack of action, with few clear-cut chances, neither goalkeeper being forced to make a save and both sides being evenly matched.
It was former Bristol City player Szmodics who brought the game to life when he fired a curling shot into the back of the net after 21 minutes giving City keeper Dan Bentley no chance.
City have one of the best away records in the Championship this season, having taken nine points on the road coming into the match. They quickly built pressure, with Martin and Andreas Weimann among those seeing chances go begging, and did not have to wait long for an equaliser.
With their seventh corner in just 34 minutes, Matty James sent the ball in and Rob Atkinson headed goalward, only for the effort to be credited as an own goal by Thompson.
Six minutes later City took the lead following a passage of crisp passing around the edge of the box set which set up Tanner. The 21-year-old defender was making just his fourth appearance for the Robins, and sent a low shot into the back of the net for his first goal.
But right on half-time, Szmodics responded with his second, looping the ball over Bentley's head to keep things level at the break.
Williams was denied a goal by Posh keeper Dai Cornell not long after the restart, while Ollie Norburn sent a shot wide at the other end.
The points looked like they were set to be shared before Martin was set up by Joe Williams with six minutes to go, and he fired in the winner to secure all three points for Bristol City.
Darren Ferguson, Peterborough United manager, told BBC Radio Cambridge:
"It's a bad one, it's a sore one, I just said that to the players I wasn't critical of them, I don't think it's the right time to criticise. We're just not getting a little break, we just need a break.
"I thought our attacking intent what we worked on was good. The balance of that, the trade-off, is that we need to be better defensively. We've lost poor goals, but the big turning point,
"Harrison goes to shoot the boys put both hands on him, I've just seen it back it was a penalty kick. They go up the pitch and score the winner.
"It changes the game, we get the penalty Sammie's on a hat-trick probably scores and we probably win the game. But the referee he was very adamant it wasn't a penalty. But when you lose three goals in the manner we did.
"We knew that they would have a height advantage at set pieces because of the team I picked, and it told. They had three or four and I thought we'd just see it through. and Atkinson's just got on top of Tommo, second goal is very avoidable and the third one has just ricocheted.
"These are the finer details we're just not getting right at the moment. It drops to Martin, goal, that's the quality he's got and he was a handful all day."
Curtis Fleming, Bristol City assistant manager, told BBC Radio Bristol:
"Really happy, I think we needed to bounce back after Millwall, a game that we were well in Millwall, and the fine margins that I spoke about. We were looking for intensity, work rate and the finishes in the final third and we got a lot of that today.
"It's very, very important for us. We're still a work in progress, I think it's Nigel's saying, and I think that we're just working our socks off and we're showing and I think character got us the win today.
We know what the Championship is all about. When we spoke at half-time about how we could go and win the game, not how we could go and protect an away point. I don't think we can do that so I think it was important that we stuck to what our beliefs were, our team shape and what we were trying to do in the game, and I think that we succeeded in that.
"At the end of the day, it's fine margins, quality from Chris and then some great defending from us because I thought Peterborough were very, very good today, they asked us a lot of questions."
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