Wednesday’s hopes of a League One play-off final at Wembley look all but over after they were swept aside in a semi-final first leg 4-0 drubbing at Peterborough on Friday night.
We now need a near miracle to overturn such a deficit when the teams meet again in the second leg at Hillsborough on Thursday.
Michael Smith missed a great chance to put us one-up early on, home keeper Will Norris saving in a one-on-one.
However, it was the home side who struck first on 20 minutes, Cameron Dawson allowing a low 15-yard shot from Jack Taylor to slip from his grasp and creep inside the near post.
Wednesday hit back with Callum Paterson’s drive looking goalbound before it struck Josh Windass and worse followed 10 minutes before half-time when Joe Ward’s speculative long-ranger took a big deflection off Marvin Johnson and arced into the top corner of the net, via the underside of the bar.
Any hopes of a second-half Wednesday revival were dealt a massive blow within five minutes of the restart, Kwame Poku finding yards of space at the far post to head firmly home.
We then responded with our only concerted spell of pressure on the night. Johnson’s shot appeared to be handled by Ronnie Edwards but the referee awarded a corner before Frankie Kent cleared a close-range Michael Ihiekwe effort off the line.
Then, to complete a miserable night for Wednesday, the home side scored what could be a crucial fourth goal eight minutes from time. Dawson made a great reflex save to keep out Taylor’s header but the latter reacted with a cross to the far post from the rebound and Jonson Clarke-Harris headed in.
There was still time for Dawson to prevent a fifth with an excellent block from Poku and while Wednesday can point to not getting any breaks on the night, there was no doubt that Peterborough showed more energy, more pace, more aggression and more desire and were worthy winners.
Dawson, Palmer, Iorfa, Flint, Ihiekwe (James 86), Johnson, Vaulks, Bannan, Paterson (Gregory 59) Windass, Smith (Adeniran 62). Unused subs: Stockdale, Bakinson, Dele-Bashiru, Hunt.