Two Games at a Time
Peterborough United (H) August 9th Carabao Cup and August 13th (League 1)
Thanks to the vagaries of the EFL fixture computer, and the Thai betting syndicate running the Water Buffalo Cup draw, we now have the luxury or two consecutive home games, and even better, we don’t have to change too much of the notes/team sheets/programmes etc as they are both against the Posh.
Peterborough, or New Rotherham as they are known in the Championship, are presently on the down leg of their elastically powered promotion/relegation cycle. As such, they are destined never to visit the Millers again, except in the unfortunate event of a Papa Johns group game, or that they both managed to stumble through to the later rounds of the Carabao or FA Cups. So never, in all probability.
Last season also saw us draw the then Championship behemoths at this stage of the Carabao, and in one of the stand-out performances of the early season run we all enjoyed, the Greens ran out comfortable winners by four to zip.
A relative newcomer as a league club (1960) and as an opponent for Argyle (ten years later in the FA Cup, fifteen in the league) the Posh, as inappropriate a nickname as any for those who have visited London Road, have not been writ large in our history.
In 1975 they staged the somewhat infamous last game of the Mariner/Rafferty/Waiters promotion season, ending our lingering Champions hopes by winning 1-0, and surviving the coach borne assault of a less than chivalrous Green Army, who at one stage had to be ejected from the stadium on threat of the game being called off. One wonders if those brave souls who terrorised the sleepy town centre would have been quite so brave if they had known local bobby, one PC Geoff Capes, international shot putter and Worlds Strongest Man, was on duty that day.
Posh gained their nickname when the then manager of a non-league team said he was advertising for “posh players for a posh football team. Fletton United, later Peterborough and Fletton United were the precursor of the modern side who joined the league in 1960 at the expense of Gateshead. It has remained in place despite the best efforts of fashion designer and world class mime Victoria Beckham who sued over its use by them. Unsurprisingly she lost.
Posh was certainly not something you would associate with perhaps the best-known occupant of the Managers chair at London Road, one Barry Fry. Fry, was and to a degree still is, the archetypal wheeler dealer, having featured in TV documentaries and who, whilst at Birmingham City, managed to sell 28 players whilst buying 29, and once delivered the stinging rebuke to his then Chairman, Porn baron David Sullivan, “he doesn’t know the difference between a goal line and a clothesline.”
Post his somewhat inevitable sacking at Birmingham, Fry surfaced at Peterborough where he was both manager and Chairman for ten years. This arrangement, unique in football, was ideal for a manager previously sacked and reinstated eight times whilst at Barnet under Stan Flashman at Barnet. On being relegated in 2005, he resigned as manager and in 2006 he sold the club to a Liverpool supporting 30 year old time share businessman, Darragh MacAnthony. Fry became Director of Football and remained very much the face of the Posh. Even a four month ban for “betting irregularities” in 2019 did not diminish his love for the club.
MacAnthony, at thirty the youngest Chairman in the League then appointed, somewhat controversially, Darren Ferguson, son of Sir Alex, as a novice manager. Ferguson was a Premier League winner, albeit his final appearance of the title season left United in tenth position and was the match before the slightly more prominent Eric Cantona signed from Leeds. It makes him, in one list, one of the ten worst United players to win more Premiership medals that Stevie Gerrard!
Ferguson promptly won back-to-back promotions, before a poor campaign start saw him sacked. After spells at Doncaster and Preston, where in particular at Donny, he failed to endear himself to the Green Army and the FA when claiming referees that failed to meet his exacting standards (of giving penalties whenever he wanted one) should be shot, Ferguson returned to Posh. There then commenced a bizarre apparent job share arrangement with Grant McCann, now the current boss once again, as MacAnthony went through a process of sacking and reappointing them , interrupted only by the appointment of such charmers as Steve Evans and Graham Westley.
The club has a reputation for buying low and selling high, especially of forwards, with the profits then being used to sustain the club in leaner times. Names like Assombalonga, Washington, Ivan Toney, Dwight Gayle and Jack Marriott are amongst those who have generated profits in excess of twenty million pounds for Posh. Indeed, in the top twenty of profitable sales is one Tsoumani Diagouraga, whom they sold to Brentford. Last week saw the departure of Scrabble Champion Sammy Szmodics to Blackburn Rovers for an eye watering 2.5 million pounds and a triple word score.
More recently the clubs have been linked through loan and subsequent purchase of George Cooper, and last seasons perpetual motion machine Ryan Broom. It is to be expected that Broom may depart the club in this window, but we may see him play some part in the cup match if as expected both sides ring the changes after their contrasting weekend results.
As a club who has enjoyed runs in the Caraboa equivalents of yore, Wednesdays game is unlikely to be a good indicator of the weekend game….but Saturday is an early chance for Argyle to demolish the only remaining hundred percent record in the division. The cup game is also a chance to put minutes into a number of players yet to feature and perhaps challenge the initial team structure after a disappointing end to the match at Fleetwood.
