The Closing Of The Season Marks A Whole New Era For The Posh.

A season that was supposed to be the greatest in the clubs history has turned out to be one that even Peterborough United Chairman Darragh MacAnthony has called “shambolic”. From the start of the season ‘The Posh’ were off that pace. After an opening day defeat to Derby County things never really got better and Peterborough United’s swift climb up the English league system was halted, in dramatic fashion, on Saturday when ‘The Posh’ were the first club in ‘The Football League’ to be mathematically relegated.

In less than twelve months a team that secured back-to-back promotions had been dismantled from top to bottom; Darren Ferguson left in November, the manager that guided Posh to back-to-back promotions, in suspicious circumstances, later that month Aaron McLean, one of Peterborough’s ‘holy trinity’ handed in a transfer request and George Boyd joined Nottingham Forest after being the clubs star performer through the two promotion seasons. With another two managers coming and going in the process of this capitulation and star players being linked with summer transfers to other, bigger, clubs a squad that will go down in Peterborough United history has been overhauled and ‘The Posh’ have gone from being a model for how lower league clubs should be run to being the laughing stock of English football in just twelve months.

However this week there is a new found optimism around London Road following the appointment of Gary Johnson as manager. Johnson took charge at Cambridge United, Kettering Town, Yeovil Town and Latvia before taking the job as Bristol City manager where he enjoyed his most successful spell as manager. He took Bristol City to within 15 minutes of the Premier League after getting ‘The Robin’s’ promoted from League One the previous season and, therefore, has the credentials to do well at Peterborough. Barry Fry rather exaggeratedly stated that Johnson’s appointment “was the best decision the club had made in its 75 year history” and was one “that would shake the World of football”.

Johnson’s first game in charge is on Saturday when Peterborough take on play-off chasing Leicester City at London Road. Leicester and Posh were the two clubs that successfully achieved automatic promotion from League 1 last season but the clubs have had rather different fortunes this campaign. ‘The Foxes’ will be looking for revenge on last season’s 2-0 loss in the same fixture, that win blew the title race wide open in the two clubs League One campaign but the implications if Leicester slip up are certainly more severe this time round.

Reading are next up for ‘The Posh’ in arguably their toughest fixture in their last four matches. ‘The Royals’ were struggling for the majority of the season but since Brian McDermott took control of the club Reading haven’t looked back and have put together a remarkable run of results that has propelled them from 19^th position to outsiders for the play-offs in under 4 months.

Johnson returns to London Road for the final home game of the season on April 24^th when Blackpool are the visitors. Blackpool have been the Championship’s surprise package this season sustaining a charge for the play-offs with a limited budget under Ian Holloway’s guidance. ‘The Tangerine’s’ are another tough fixture as ‘Posh’ face three successive play-off contenders in a row meaning Peterborough, despite not being in with a chance of gaining promotion themselves, can have a huge influence on which clubs do make the play-offs.

On the final day of the season Peterborough face their longest away trip to Home Park were they face Plymouth Argyle who, despite putting up a valiant attempt to stay in the division, look set to be relegated into League One, with Peterborough. It means that this fixture may effectively be a friendly as Plymouth look set to join ‘The Posh’ in being mathematically relegated before the season has finished.

Ultimately Gary Johnson’s first fixtures are likely to be ones in which he will experiment with numerous members of his first time squad to see who he wants to keep next season and who will leave the club in the summer, with Peterborough needing to get rid of players, from the very large squad they already have, for next season which will spent, if Darragh MacAnthony’s ambitions are anything to go by, winning the League 1 title.