Lewis Maloney's penalty miss proves costly as Boro held by Peterborough Sports

Alex Brown and Alex Purver rested knocks picked up at Hereford in midweek, with Lewis Maloney and Michael Duckworth (his first start for 109 days due to illness), coming into the starting line-up, while Luca Colville made his 150th competitive Boro appearance, writes Steve Adamson.

Boro were behind within two minutes, when a ball forward from the lively Dan Jarvis fell to Kaine Felix inside the area, and he coolly chipped over Ryan Whitley to open the scoring and stun the home crowd.

Boro were quick to respond, with wing-backs Duckworth and Jack Waldron in great form. Colville jinked past two defenders before firing over, then a fantastic long diagonal pass from Maloney towards Waldron on the right was intercepted by the excellent Eliot Putman, before Boro almost drew level on 20 minutes when a fierce 30-yard strike from Richie Bennett was pushed round the post by flying keeper Peter Crook.

Waldron teed up Colville, but Crook gathered his low shot, and Alex Wiles and Harry Green both went on mazy dribbles. For the visitors, Will Van Lier burst onto a through-ball from Ryan Fryatt, but was halted by a Dom Tear tackle.

Boro were dominating possession, a Green cross was met by Bennett, whose shot was blocked by their imposing player-boss Michael Gash, Green chested into the path of Colville, who swivelled to shoot goalwards, but Green pulled off a superb save down to his left as Sports retained their lead into the interval.

There was good football from both sides after the break, Maloney sending free-kick from the left, into the chest of Crook, then for the visitors, Oisin Gallagher passed to Michael Gyasi, whose strike was blocked by Kieran Weledji.

Boro equalised on 49 minutes when Colville’s ball from the byeline led to a goalmouth scramble.

The ref spotted a handball, and Maloney sent Crook the wrong way from the penalty spot.

The pace and trickery of Colville and Green created further chances. A Green shot was blocked by Gash, Waldron had a shot blocked by Bayley McCann, and Kieran Glynn, on from the bench, headed wide from a Green cross.

Glynn was back to his best, and his fantastic ball into the area led to Green being fouled by McCann, with the ref again pointing to the spot on 69 minutes, but this time Maloney blazed over from 12 yards.

Sports created some good chances, Gallagher just failed to tap home from a Jarvis ball across the box, a Jarvis shot was easily dealt with by Whitley, who then made a superb diving save to keep out a curling free-kick from Hugh Alban-Jones, Max Booth headed over, and Jono Bland raced clear, but was stopped by Will Thornton’s timely tackle.

Booth went down under a challenge from Thornton, but penalty appeals were waived away. Maloney fired wide for Boro, and in the end a draw was probably a fair result, both sides remaining in mid-table.

BORO - Whitley, Waldron, Duckworth (Glynn 66), Weledji, Thornton (c), Maloney (Wilson 89), Green, Tear, Bennett, Wiles, Colville subs not used- Bancroft, King, Rees

PETERBOROUGH - Crook, McCann, Putman, Gash, Van Lier (Bland 74), Fryatt (c), Gallagher, Alban-Jones, Gyasi, Jarvis, Felix (Booth 66) subs not used- Lomax, Jones, Elsom

REFEREE - Lee Hible

GOALS - BORO - Lewis Maloney 49 (pen); PETERBOROUGH - Kaine Felix 2

GOAL ATTEMPTS - BORO 12 (4 on target) PETERBOROUGH 6 (3 on target)

CORNERS - BORO 2 PETERBOROUGH 2

OFFSIDES - BORO 0 PETERBOROUGH 5

YELLOW CARDS - Harry Green, Lewis Maloney (Boro); Eliot Putman, Michael Gash, Peter Crook (Peterborough)

BORO MAN OF MATCH - (match sponsors) - Harry Green; (Scarborough News) Luca Colville

PETERBOROUGH MAN OF MATCH - Eliot Putman

ATTENDANCE - 1,332 (14 away)