By Alan Swann
Published on Fri Dec 31 10:00:00 GMT 2010
Part 2: AT the start of 2010 Posh were bottom of the Championship under the anonymous management of Mark Cooper and star striker Aaron Mclean was sulking on the transfer list.
Things didn’t improve much as Evening Telegraph Chief Sports Writer Alan Swann recalls in his review of the Posh year.
JULY
THERE was a rush of good news on the playing front led by George Boyd’s decision to sign a new Posh contract, reportedly the most lucrative in the club’s history, or at least since the Barry Fry/Peter Boizot deal of 1998.
Posh also signed the exotically-named Seth Nana Ofori-Twumasi as they continued their bid to have the most double-barrelled surnames in a squad since the Old Etonians stopped playing.
Nana allegedly turned down Champions League football with Twente Enschede in favour of playing in League One. Unfortunately former Premier League star Franck Queudrue chose a spell in the Greek top flight with Palionios rather than Posh.
Posh then banked £400,000 from Preston for Craig Morgan in the best bit of business since the club sold Dave Robinson and his wonky knee to Notts County for a similar fee in 1992.
Boyd celebrated his new deal with a winning goal in a friendly against Nottingham Forest, the club which employed him to warm the substitutes’ bench for half of last season.
In other pre-season friendlies Posh beat Rushden, lost to West ham and were smashed by Leicester.
The West Ham match was livened up by a guest appearance from former World Heavyweight Boxing champion Mike Tyson who claimed he was a fan of Posh, or at least he was until she left the Spice Girls.
Top quote: “Franck must choose between the sun, sea and sand of Greece and the dirt, muck and mud of League One,” Posh boss Gary Johnson does a bad job of selling his club.
AUGUST
POSH were off to a blistering start to the League One campaign with a 3-0 home win over Bristol Rovers on opening day.
They finished August in style as well with a 3-0 win at Plymouth as Craig Mackail-Smith (below) scored twice at Home Park for the second time in four months to leave Posh second in the League One table.
There was also progress in the Carling Cup as Rotherham and, rather more impressively, Cardiff City were despatched as chairman Darragh MacAnthony’s pre-season predictions suddenly seemed quite sane.
MacAnthony’s aims for 2010-11 included the League One title, 100 goals in all competitions, an unbeaten home record, victory in the Grand National, Boat Race and the X Factor.
The chairman also predicted that the club, i.e he, would lose another million quid just days after admitting that he had turned down a monster bid for Lee Frecklington.
Posh signed Lee Tomlin before the seasonal kick-off, but more heads were turned by the signing of a Miss Posh as Jess Weaver won a beauty pageant poll by the length of her own legs.
Top quote: “I’m not available, but I do have vacancies in the mistress department if you are qualified,” MacAnthony’s tongue-in-cheek response when a besotted fan asked if he would marry her during a Q A.
SEPTEMBER
WE are top of the league, we are top of the league.” Posh fans were able to chant that for one week after coming from 2-0 down to beat Oldham 5-2 at London Road.
A draw at Exeter next time out knocked Posh off the top despite city-based fans Richard Smith and Ann Valentine interrupting their honeymoon in Jersey to visit St James Park. Amazingly after such unpromising beginnings the couple are still together.
Ahead of that Exeter game the Posh players announced they would raise money for recently deceased Grecians player Adam Stansfield by taking on jobs in the community. Aaron Mclean declined a cheeky invitation to become a traffic cop.
Posh started to become consistently inconsistent. They presented Tranmere with their first win of the season, beat hated rivals MK Dons and then lost for the first time at home to Notts County to finish the month in fifth place.
The County match finished with both benches brawling 20 minutes after the players had done likewise. The Sun newspaper called it the dirtiest game in history, while conveniently forgetting the Dutch cloggers in the World Cup Final three months earlier.
Top quote: “I like going to Peterborough and winning,” MK Dons manager Karl Robinson with words he was forced to eat rather hurriedly.
OCTOBER
POSH went second in the League One table when winning 1-0 at Carlisle on October 2. On October 30 Posh lost 3-0 at home to leaders Brighton, dropped to fifth in the table and manager Gary Johnson threatened to quit – at half-time in the Seagulls match!
Johnson didn’t, but his disappointment was acute. After all he’d tried to turn the Brighton match into a ‘Cup Final’ which he did as Posh played like Newcastle against Liverpool in 1974.
The week before Johnson had described some his players as ‘shrinking violets’ after they were bullied into defeat by Brentford, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom as the month provided one of the greatest matches in Posh history.
Posh were 3-0 up after 22 minutes against Swindon, but required a last-gasp own goal to claim a 5-4 win. It took the number of goals in six League One matches at London Road to 33 and Posh were now the highest scorers in the country.
Posh bowed out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at Huddersfield where goalkeeper Joe Lewis made an early claim for ‘gaffe of the season’ and lost to a very slick Swansea side in the Carling Cup.
Top quote: “Gaby Zakuani limped out of the match with an elbow injury,” dozy Posh reporter in The Evening Telegraph.
NOVEMBER
WORDS and phrases like ‘humiliation’ and ‘shape up or ship out’ were in common use after Posh lost 5-1 at home to Charlton and 4-1 at Southampton.
It was too much for passionate chairman Darragh MacAnthony who appeared to fire a warning shot across the bows of the management team.
Indeed assistant manager Nicky Eaden was soon on his way and as the club’s defensive coach he could hardly use results as a defence.
Posh did manage to scrape a win at bottom club Walsall at the start of the month, but Aaron Mclean saw a last-minute penalty saved as the final League One match of the month against Leyton Orient was drawn to leave Johnson’s men in 10th place.
They did beat League Two clubs Stockport and Bury in the FA Cup though to provide a crumb of consolation from a depressing month.
Top quote: “If this management team and squad can’t look at the next five matches and pick, train and motivate a squad good enough to win those matches we are all going to have to sit down, take stock and figure out where we go from here,” Darragh MacAnthony.
DECEMBER
AARON Mclean was sold to Hull City for a club record £1.3 million, not a bad deal for a 27 year-old transfer-listed striker, unless you happened to be a Posh fan keen on winning promotion or a shrewd punter on The Evening Telegraph Sports Desk who claimed to have 33/1 on Mclean to top the League One scoring charts.
Director of football Barry Fry immediately warned others might be sold, although chairman Darragh MacAnthony insisted there would no firesale as confusion continued to reign at London Road.
On the field Posh won for the first time in four League One matches against Rochdale, but any hope that momentum was back was dashed by the Arctic weather conditions.
Postponements were regular and Sheffield Wednesday proved themselves to be the British Rail of League One by calling a game off NINE days in advance on safety grounds.
Posh finished the year with a creditable 1-1 draw at Swindon to finish 2010 in eighth place, but just two points off the automatic promotion slots.
Top quote: “I had 10 players on my shopping list, but Rooney turned us down so now I only have nine,” Posh boss Gary Johnson.
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