, Peterborough United: A season review

Peterborough United: A season review

So another season ends, and for the third season running, it ends in disappointment for Peterborough United fans, and the worst part? It seems to be getting worse. Over the last two seasons we as fans have at least had some shreds of glory to cling to come curtain close. The 2012/13 season was heartbreaking, of course it was. Conceding twice in the final seven minutes of a match to be relegated is never going to be easy to take. But, at least on that final day we were relegated with pride. Pride that we fought to the very end and finished the season with 54 points, the highest points tally a team has ever been relegated with in the Football League. What makes that stat even more impressive is that that points tally this season would have seen us finish 16th! The 2013/14 season was very similar to this one. An impressive start coupled with increasing optimism before that optimism is snatched away from us again so cruelly in the latter stages of the season, when some truly abysmal performances came into play. But still, we came out of that season with the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy: one of our pre-season targets achieved.

But that’s in the past! A time, that in the moment seemed so unwanted, is one that many Posh fans would jump back to in a heart beat. So what happened this season to make it so unpleasant? And are there any scraps of optimism fans of Peterborough United can cling to? Throughout this review, I will be looking at the far too infrequent highs, and the lows that seemed to define our season.

 

1) The Transfer Window

The summer transfer window of 2014 was one that produced very few complaints, which is extremely rare. We were promised by our Chairman, Darragh MacAnthony and our then manager Darren Ferguson, who had also just signed a new three year deal, that we would be seeing high intensity, attacking football return to London Road. In many ways we would look to travel back three or four years, to a time when Peterborough United’s philosophy was simple; if you score two, we’ll score three. If you score four we’ll score five. The prospect of returning to a time that produced both glory and incredible entertainment was a mouth-watering prospect.

The early signs were good. The first signing was Jon Taylor from Shrewsbury Town, a player known for his pace, direct running and work-rate. He was a signing welcomed with open arms; here was the very type of player we had been missing for the two previous campaigns, someone who will commit defenders, a man the opposition will dread facing. Unfortunately it was a season full of flashes of brilliance, but nothing more in a campaign hampered by injury. A few stand-out performances were still seen, not least against MK Dons, at what was still called London Road, where the Liverpudlian ran himself into the ground in a pulsating 3-2 win.

Next in was a little fellow from non-league side Dulwich and Hamlet named Erhun Oztumer. Having dubbed George Boyd ‘The White Pele”, MacAnthony quickly bestowed Erhun with the title of “The Turkish Messi”: No pressure then. It quickly became apparent why he had been given this title. His low centre of gravity and obvious dribbling ability made him a nightmare for opposing defenders in pre-season. Again, like Taylor, it has been a season of infrequent brilliance. He scored a sublime free-kick away to Leyton Orient in a 2-1 win, but that was it on the goals front for the Turk. He continued to impress with his mazy runs, but all too often they lacked any end product. He has however, become a favourite of many fans, mainly because he was one of the few players in the team, come the final part of the season, who was willing to run with the ball and provide any kind of attacking threat.

Other names quickly followed. Bristol Rovers right-back Michael Smith arrived in a move that would add some much needed stability to what had always been a very attacking defence in the past, with the likes of Mark Little and Tommy Rowe often playing more as wingers than defenders in the past. Over the course of the season Smith proved himself to be arguably the best purchase of the transfer window. Consistency seemed to be his middle name, with many fans, journalists and even the chairman stating that he is one of those players who will never get less than a seven out of ten every game. Apart form a minor mid-season lull, in which the Northern Irishman found himself playing at left-back, this proved to be the case, and Smith cemented his place as a firm fans favourite.

Ben Alnwick signed for free and was put in the awkward position of replacing Posh’s double Player of the Year winner Bobby Olejnik. But Alnwick quickly assured the fans that he is a very capable replacement with his early season performances. However, Alnwick is a player that has split opinion amongst fans, with many feeling he is one of the few players to come out of this season with any sort of pride, whilst others feel he is simply not good enough. I feel conflicted. On one hand he has been behind what has been a pretty dreadful defence for nearly all of the season. It is rare that only keeping eleven clean sheets all season will be just down to the keeper, and a good handful of those were down to individual brilliance from Alnwick. But then on the other hand it is hard to see how he is a step up from Bobby Olejnik. The former Charlton goalkeeper’s unique selling point was supposed to be his distribution, although in many matches he has found members of the crowd more often than his teammates.

Marcus Maddison, a man known for his wand of a left foot, was signed from Gateshead. It didn’t take him long to show what he was capable of, as on his full dMarcus Maddisonebut against Leyton Orient in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, he scored with a sublime strike from the edge of the area into the bottom corner. A match against Oldham at the start of October revealed Maddison’s next party piece; the free kick. From over 25 yards out, the former Newcastle youth man hit the ball in a unique, Gareth Bale-esque manner, sending the ball swerving just past the reach of Paul Rachubka and into the top corner. Amazingly, only two games later, he repeated the feat, this time from even further out against Barnsley. This time the ball seemed destined to sail harmlessly over the bar, but a wicked dip at the last moment sent it crashing past the helpless Ross Turnbull; he had done it again. Sandwiched between this was a cheeky nutmeg away to Crawley, and was followed by another free-kick, much less spectacular however, against Coventry. Once again though, injuries ruined what would have no doubt been a spectacular debut season in the Football League, an injury that many also believe played a huge role in The Posh’s downturn in form. Maddison is another player who has sparked debate amongst fans, with many believing he needs to toughen up, in reference to his frequent theatrics on the pitch. Many have also called for him to be sold for this reason, which I believe to be absurd.

 

Finally there was Luke James. If ever there were a player to personify a season, he would be it. Brought in on deadline day from Hartlepool – with MacAnthony, in typically flamboyant fashion, announcing the signing live on BT Sport’s deadline day show – many fans were delighted with the 19-year-old signing. Here, we had the club signing one of the highest rated strikers outside of the Premier League: Someone who was fast, clinical and good in the air, a man to replace the goals lost with Britt Assombalonga’s departure to Nottingham Forest a week before the season began. But there was still an ominous aura that James brought with him: one of petulance. Before arriving at Peterborough United, James had missed nearly a week’s training at Hartlepool in what was believed to a be protest of not being allowed to leave, which sent alarm bells ringing in the heads of many fans. James was given the number nine shirt, and, much like the season, made a good start to his career, scoring as a substitute on his debut against Leyton Orient. But then, much like the season, he never found any consistency and didn’t score again for seven months, when he did however, it was a terrific diving header away to Doncaster Rovers. James was, undoubtedly, not justifying his hefty price tag. In 2015 however, James started to become a real favourite of the fans who admired his tireless work rate, and his impressive ability to win headers against centre-backs, even when he only stood at 5’8’’. However, such a meager goal return has certainly left him at the mercy of the transfer list, with the Chairman reportedly keen for him to go out on loan to get him firing.

 

2) August – December: Oh, hey there, False Hope! Haven’t seen you since last season…

 Yes, once again it was an opening five months that filled the fans with such high hopes, but once again by the end of it, our season was as good as over.

It all started so well. Thirteen games into the season we had only lost three times, drawn once and won the other nine. Comfortably tucked away in second, four points ahead of third place Swindon, many began thinking that it was going to be our year. Fans witnessed some of the best performances they had seen their club put on for years. Matches against Port Vale and Crawley all showcased the best football we had to offer. The Port Vale game showcased the individual quality we possessed through two world-class, long-range strikes from Marcus Maddison and from Jack Payne. The match against Crawley in particular stands out; purely as it was a real hark back to the ruthless Posh of the 2010-11 season. It was a match of sheer dominance: Posh had a total of 18 shots in the match compared to Crawley’s eight. Ten of ours were on target, as opposed to their two. It’s not often as a fan you come away from a game, slightly disappointed you have only scored four times, but this was one of them. TalkSport presenter, and supporter of The Posh Adrian Durham said at the end of the season that it was “classic Fergie football” and that it “could have been ten”. His next words summed up the remainder of the year perfectly: “shame we couldn’t keep it up”.

For the next few months, if you listened carefully enough, you could hear the audible sound of fans crashing back down to earth. It became increasingly apparent that Peterborough United would not be winning promotion to the Championship. After the win at home to Barnsley on October the 18th, the team managed to go without a single point until an away win at struggling Leyton Orient on the 13th of December: That is nearly two whole months, or over 630 minutes without adding a single point to our total. At the start of this run The Posh had been sitting in second. By the end of it, we had crashed down to ninth, eleven points from the top two.

This run of results also highlighted an enormous gulf in class between us, and the teams battling for automatic promotion. Both Swindon and Bristol City came to London Road, and both left with three points, having pulled down the pants of our players in front of their own fans. First, Swindon arrived under former Posh boss Mark Cooper: It was painful. Here was a team, terrorising and tstream_imgearing apart their opposition by playing slick, passing football, exactly what we had set out to do at the start of the season, whilst we stood there, playing like a team who looked like they had won the chance to be there. It finished 2-1, and you would not have seen a more flattering score line all season.

The ‘Mac-attack’ will always be a massive piece of Peterborough United history. Between them they scored 179 goals at the London
Road club over five years. This season, the pair were reunited at Peterborough United. Fans were, understandably jubilant, but beneath the ecstasy, the move smacked of desperation, and possibly, in a more cynical view, a way of shifting more tickets to a quickly dwindling fan base. Unfortunately, the pair just couldn’t establish the telepathic connection they seemed to share in those glorious five years. Only one goal between them in their three games playing together proved that some things are best left in the past.

Then Bristol City came to town, and so did the Sky Sports cameras. A chance to show the world what we were really capable of? Not at all. Although, perhaps a 3-0 drubbing to the team who looked set to be champions already really was all we were capable of. Again, we fell victim to an incredibly well organised machine, playing attacking, passing football, and getting promoted on the way to doing so. It was painful to watch, again. A real sense of foreboding also occurred in this match from the stands. The first cohesive anti-Ferguson chants could be heard. The manager had been rapidly losing supporters for months now, and this run seemed to have pushed many over the edge, and broken their patience.

But, despite all the losses, and completely abysmal performances, we were still, somehow, level on points with sixth placed Rochdale. Maybe, the Play-Offs were our route back into the Championship? Well, three games, and only one point, to finish the calendar year seemed to settle that! A 1-0 loss at home to Preston, a flattering 3-2 loss at Chesterfield on Boxing Day – a game in which The Posh found themselves 3-0 down after an hour – and a bore 0-0 draw at home to Doncaster, finished what was, on the whole, an incredibly disappointing first half of the season. We showed ourselves to be nowhere near the standard needed to be promoted, or to even be considered for promotion. So, what could MacAnthony and co. do from January to turn this season around?

 

3) January – May: All change off the pitch, little change on it.

 It did not take long at all for the drama of 2015 to commence. In fact, it couldn’t even wait more than one match. On the 10th of Darragh-MacAnthony-001January, relegation threatened Colchester visited London Road and cruised to a 0-2 win, and boos rained down from all ends of the ground at full time. However, it was not on the pitch that the drama took place, but on social media. Chairman Darragh MacAnthony, a notorious tweeter amongst Posh fans, was inundated with fans calling for Darren Ferguson to be fired; Darragh’s response was quite frankly incredible! The Irishman’s first of a series of tweets read: “Like all Posh fans & our Manager, there are many things I’m well & truly p…d off & have the hump with after today, care to know them all?”

MacAnthony then launched into a scathing attack of his players, including how he was “P….d off that it is always the manager who is held responsible when a team of players fold like a stack of cards”. There were also individual attacks for Joe Newell, who ‘P….d the Chairman off’ by “missing a goal from 5 yards out”, and for goalkeeper Ben Alnwick, who got on the chairman’s bad side by “having two shots to save all game yet we conceded two goals”. These were just the highlights of an extraordinary public venting of emotion from a football chairman, who finished his tirade by saying “if any of my pl[a]y[e]rs are [a] bit too sensitive to what’s been said, feel free to let me know anytime. Or alternatively, just do your job.”

And with that, Posh fans on twitter all across the country sat with their mouths off their hinges, completely in shock at what they had just read. However, many fans felt it pretty narrow minded of the Chairman to place the entire blame for these performances solely on the players’ shoulders. There was surely some level of disharmony between the players and the management staff to be churning out such lackluster performances.

And the lackluster performances didn’t stop there. Despite two wins against very poor sides in Notts County and Yeovil Town, Posh continued to play with no tenacity or quality. Another rare win came against Rochdale, with new signing Harry Beautyman, a player who had been compared to Posh legend Charlie Lee for his work rate in midfield, getting on the score sheet in a 2-1 win. A win that would prove to be Fergie’s last.

ben-alnwick-fails-to-save-another-goal-bound-effort-v-mk-donsHow ironic, that it would prove to be The Posh’s fiercest League One rivals who seemed to finally force Mr. MacAnthony’s hand. 2-0 down away at Stadium:Mk, Darren Ferguson decides to make a “tactical” substitution, taking off Michael Smith, and Erhun Oztumer, two of the fans’ most liked players, with the latter playing well despite the score line. Ten minutes after the substitutions were made, it was 3-0.

But it was the support that the fans showed the team, despite them being three down that the chairman said finally forced his hand. Even at 3-0, the near 2000 travelling fans continued to urge their team on, with spine tingling renditions of “When the Posh go steaming in”. The game finished 3-0, but this match was not about the result on the pitch.

After the game, MacAnthony released the statement that fans had been longing to read for months. The chairman stated that it was with a heavy heart he and Mr. Ferguson will be parting ways. The reaction on twitter was a mixed one, a blend of delight and thanks for the years of glory that Darren had brought to the club.

Dave Robertson, who was managing the youth team at the time, took over for what many assumed, and was later confirmed to be, until the end of the season, with two Posh legends in the form of Grant McCann and Aaron McLean for company on the sideline; could it be the new, managerial holy trinity? With MacAnthony saying he will not be interviewing new candidates until May, Robertson had two months to prove he had what it takes to step into Fergie’s shoes.

He employed a mantra of “round pegs in round holes” with every player playing in their most comfortable position. He could not have wished for a better start. Robertson won his first four games as manager, including many fans’ highlight of the season: a 1-2 victory at Bramall Lane against Sheffield United.

Sheffield United v Peterborough United 030315Posh were 1-0 down with two minutes of the 90 left, when Jack Payne struck from distance to level the game at 1-1. A point would have been a brilliant result, and no one would have blamed Robertson for sitting back. But he pushed his players on. Two minutes later, Aaron McLean won a header and sent Conor Washington in on goal. A cool finish, and Posh lead: cue wild celebrations amongst the travelling fans.

Two more straight wins against Leyton Orient and an away win at Doncaster saw Posh somehow climb up into seventh, level on points with sixth placed Barnsley. One more win at home to Chesterfield a fortnight later lifted the London Road team back into sixth, with their play-off fate in their hands.

The “round pegs in round holes” mantra was paying particular dividends for one player. Michael Bostwick was signed in the summer of 2012 as a midfield enforcer, but had found himself playing at centre back or right back for large chunks of this campaign. Robertson put him back in his favourite position and he quickly became our most important player.

But sadly it all fell apart. Despite the impressive wins and wonderful team spirit, it had become apparent to many fans that the team still weren’t playing with any flare or quality. It seemed to be sheer grit and determination that was getting them through.

After the Chesterfield victory, six games past by before Robertson, McCann and McLean saw their team win again. The “round pegs” were now being forced into square holes, with left back Kgosi Ntlhe playing as part of a back three, and exciting youth team winger Harry Anderson forced to play at right wing back.

The results may have stuttered, but there is no doubting the impressive job that Robertson and co. did in stabalising what was a quickly sinking ship. When he took over the reigns from Fergie junior, he inherited what was quite frankly a shambles. He walked into a club plummeting down the table and sitting in 15th, only eight points from the relegation zone, with five of the teams below having at least one game in hand.

So, to achieve a finish of ninth is a great achievement for Robertson, and one that should not be overlooked.

 

4) Conclusions?

 Well, if this season proved anything, it’s that there is never a boring season at Peterborough United. Granted, it is usually on the pitch where the drama unfolds, but nonetheless, a new manager, a smattering of twitter outbursts, and the disappointing return of the Mac-attack, it was still an eventful campaign for The Posh.

But wait! There is light at the end of the tunnel, there is sun poking through the clouds, there are more light metaphors I could use to say that there is cause for optimism! For the first season in years, we do not seem to be at risk of losing a star player! Granted, there weren’t any, but this at least means that we will be able to build on what is a talented squad.

Yes, there is no doubt Fergie should have gone last season, but there is little doubt in my mind that the sale of Britt Assombalonga a week before the season began, had a hugely destabalising effect on the squad, and on the plans of Darragh MacAnthony and Darren Ferguson. I feel the last thing that needs to be done this summer is another rebuild. This season was the first full season many of these players had played together; so let them continue to gel.

Another big question is, who should replace the Scot permanently? I have huge admiration for the job that Dave Robertson, Grant McCann and Aaron McLean did for the club in a season that was rapidly turning into the worst nightmares of many fans. They did an excellent job stabalising the club, and to even get back into play-off contention was a remarkable achievement.

However, I do feel that Robertson’s style of play, and his limited tactical nous means he is not the right man. I would love to see him return to his job with the youth team, and work closely with the first team as to bring as many fresh faces into the first XI. But right now I feel we need experience at this level or higher, and a man who is more brains than brawn.

As a fan of Peterborough United, life is full of uncertainties. Next season could just as easily end in relegation, as it could with promotion; our lives are that unstable. But whatever happens over the summer, next season will still prove to be an entertaining one: again.

 

 

 

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