A point hoisted Huddersfield Town out of the Championship relegation zone – but the feeling it should have been all three just can’t be kicked into touch.
Mark Robins’ men – now fourth from bottom, a point above Blackburn and Peterborough and eight above Bristol City – twice held the lead in this nervy clash, through Neil Danns and Murray Wallace.
But twice they were pegged back, with keeper Alex Smithies claiming he was blinded by the low sun shining into his eyes.
He might have been defending the goal in front of the Fantastic Media Stand, but it was frustrating in the extreme as first Lee Tomlin, then Dwight Gayle, netted levellers.
Town were unable to halt the twisting run down the right of Nathaniel Mendez-Laing for the first, on 50 minutes.
And the second, on 86, came from Posh’s first corner of the game, delivered by Tomlin from the right and headed into the far corner by the visitors’ top scorer Gayle.
The 22-year-old, who was a prolific marksman in non-league football after being released from Arsenal’s junior ranks, now has 12 for his current club to go with the seven he claimed for Dagenham & Redbridge earlier in the season.
Identified as a major threat by Robins beforehand, a home defence featuring Wallace in place of calf-injury victim Anthony Gerrard dealt well with him for the bulk of this contest.
But he would have been celebrating a winner had it not been for a smart block by skipper Peter Clarke, who had already made terrific goalline clearances to deny Mendez-Laing, in the first half, and substitute Tyrone Barnett, shortly before Posh’s second goal.
That outcome would have been tough on Town, who struggled for genuine fluency but again created some decent chances.
But what a shame more couldn’t be made of seven corners (to the opposition’s two), all of which were taken by Oliver Norwood in the absence of Danny Ward with a groin injury.
Run of the ball: Key moments in Huddersfield Town v Peterborough United - click here
To be fair to the former Manchester United midfielder, he had a hand in both his side’s goals.
He built on good work by Paul Dixon and James Vaughan in the 41st minute to whistle in a shot which keeper Robert Olejnik could only parry.
The busy Danns was in the right place at the right time to hook home his second Town goal.
And Wallace’s first for the club came in the 69th minute when Norwood returned a cleared corner from the left for the centre-back to head into the opposite corner.
That could have been the signal for Town to take command, because Robins, having started with a 4-2-3-1 system, had brought on Jermaine Beckford to play alongside the ever-energetic Vaughan while Posh had gone from three to two centre-backs.
But the on-loan Leicester man struggled to get into the game, while two minutes of stoppage time had passed when Alan Lee was thrown on for a very late push.
Oscar Gobern was influential in the first half but seemed to lose impetus in the second (he was replaced by Beckford just before the hour) while like Norwood, Scott Arfield was in and out of the game on his first start in eight matches.
Meanwhile Sean Scannell caught the eye with his trickery, but couldn’t conjure either a goal or an assist.
