Peterborough 1 Leeds United 2: Whites strike force rapidly make amends for their lapse at seaside

Argentinian forward Luciano Becchio swooped for both goals at London Road as Leeds ensured struggling hosts Peterborough equalled their worst start to a Football League season.

Becchio broke the deadlock after seven minutes with a smart finish past home goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik, and doubled the advantage five minutes into the second period.

He was allowed a free header to convert a classy chip by Ross McCormack to take his goal return to four in as many matches this term.

Warnock had been hugely critical of his front four for their displays in defeat at Blackpool in midweek but it was a different story on this occasion.

He said: “We thoroughly deserved the victory.

“The front players were poor in the defeat at Blackpool and I let them know as much, but they were much better (Saturday).

“We looked dangerous, Luciano got his goals and we did a very professional job

“You always get greedy when a couple of goals up but I thought we could have seen it out before Peterborough got their goal back.

“The lads are adamant we should have had a couple of penalties and we had so many promising breakaways that fell down.

“You can always be guaranteed that Peterborough will fight for their lives but we managed to get the win. Our back four and goalkeeper were also fantastic.”

Peterborough did halve their arrears when summer signing Michael Bostwick volleyed in a spectacular first goal for the club in the 73rd minute, but they could not summon a late fightback.

It is 40 years since the only previous occasion on which Posh lost their opening three league matches in a season, the 1972-73 campaign.

Manager Darren Ferguson headed straight into a post-match meeting with chairman Darragh MacAnthony before eventually appearing to tell the media his team must cut out the silly errors.

Ferguson said: “We’re giving away poor goals at poor times and giving ourselves a mountain to climb in matches.

“Leeds’s first was as a result of a mistake and the second came after we had lost the ball.

“When we got it back to 2-1 
I thought we might get something out of the game but it wasn’t to be.”

Peterborough: Olejnik ,Alcock (Little 62), Brisley, Zakuani, Ntlhe, Bostwick, Frecklington (Swanson 62), McCann, Boyd, Tomlin, Sinclair (Taylor 64). Unused substitutes: Day, Newell, Knight-Percival, Clarke-Harris.

Leeds United: Kenny, Peltier, Pearce, Lees, Drury, Diouf (Byram 75), Norris, Austin, McCormack (Poleon 78), Becchio (Gray 87), Varney. Unused substitutes: Ashdown, Kisnorbo, White, Brown.

Referee: S Mathieson (Cheshire).