Peterborough away - Predictions and Preview

The first midweek league game sees us on the road to Peterborough. The Reds remain unbeaten in the league and cup, whilst the Posh have endured a miserable start to the campaign, losing all 4 games, conceding 2 goals in each. This feels like an opportune time to face a side who's last victory in any competition was at Wembley in the Broken Windscreen Paint Trophy final, and last league victory was on 1st April. The bookies agree, making the Posh 7/4 outsiders to pick up their first 3 points of the season, with Conor's chargers priced at 6/5.

I genuinely had to double check which one of Grant McCann and Darren Ferguson, is in charge of Peterborough at the minute. Unsurprisingly, the other is at Doncaster. Between the 2 of them, they've had 7 spells as Posh Coach and 3 at Doncaster. Presumably, Ferguson is still in situ at Peterborough because McCann isn't currently available, Doncaster have started the season well. Anyway, that's a bit of a tangent. Despite back to back play-off campaigns, alongside the Reds and Bolton, Peterborough fell off significantly last season. Their form did seem to nosedive after a long term injury to star man Kwame Poku, and picked up when he returned to the side. He's since departed for QPR (has everyone signed for QPR this summer?), and Peterborough have been unable to arrest a slump which started around the time they just about confirmed safety last season. In the league, they are winless in 10, losing the last 5. They haven't won any of the last 5 at home in the league (3 defeats) but were significantly stronger on home soil last season than on their travels. They had a strong attack last season, scoring 68 goals (we scored 69, wheyyy lads lads lads), but had the worst defence in the division shipping 88 goals (15 more than us) and keeping just 6 clean sheets (the same as us) which is the joint second worst tally in the league. In the ante-post betting, they weren't fancied by the bookies by any means, but I don't think they were being considered as strongly for relegation as they probably should be.

We've found the Weston Homes Stadium a good place to visit in recent memory, going undefeated there in our last 6 visits (winning 4). The most significant meeting being the 4-0 in 2018, probably the peak of the 'Pottsy on the wing' era. Prior to that, we did lose on 3 consecutive visits, but our record this century is pretty good. Since the millennium, we've won 9, drawn 2 and lost 3 at London Road, with a goal difference of +13.

As far as I can see, the only player who has represented both sides in either squad, is Nathaniel Ogbeta (again!). Despite only being 24, the young left back seemingly has played for every club in the football league, and has become a regular feature of this particular section of the preview. He made 20 appearances for Posh in the 22/23 season, netting once. As this section is a bit shorter than usual, I'll add a correction to the Bolton preview; it has been brought to my attention that I forgot to mention that Ethan Erhahon spent 3 months on loan with our academy side from St Mirren in 2020. I remember that bizarre scenario happening at the time, though didn't realise Erhahon was the player. Undoubtedly, there was probably a monumental meltdown at the time which only the BBS could do (just checked, there sort of was). So there you go, how I didn't remember that, I'll never know.

Darren Ferguson has told his Peterborough United players they must start doing their jobs properly or they will be replaced. Posh's average goals against last season was 1.8 goals per game. It's 2 this season so far. As was the case with Bolton at the weekend (and somewhat with us) Peterborough seemingly haven't added many new bodies to their back line. The players who were in their back 4 at the weekend were at Posh last season. Though since the weekend, they have signed veteran defender Tom Lees, who was released by Huddersfield at the end of last season. A stalwart of Yorkshire football clubs, Lees hasn't played since February, so is unlikely to be part of the squad on Tuesday night. Bizarrely, Darragh McAntony said before the weekend that Lees had failed a medical and a deal was off, though Ferguson denied that in his post match interview, with Lees announced later on. They've also laid down a significant amount of money on forward Declan Frith, who went off injured during the opening day defeat to Cardiff, and midfielder Brandon Khela from Birmingham; neither have significant experience at this level. Aside from the aforementioned Kwame Poku, Posh also lost Malik Mothersile to Stockport, and Ricky Jade-Jones to St Pauli; between them they scored 35 goals last season and had 20 assists, that's a significant number to try and replace. All left on a free transfer, though Posh did receive a fee of almost £3m for defender Emmanuel Fernandez from Rangers. In typical Peterborough fashion, they have taken Kyrell Jeremiah Lisbie from Braintree; the young forward netted 13 goals last season in the National League, and is the latest in a long line of non-league strikers which the Posh have taken a punt on. Their lineup at Wigan consisted of Reyes in goal, a back 4 from right to left of Johnston, Okagbue, Wallin and Mills, Collins and Khela in deeper midfield roles, with Hayes, O'brien-Brady and Odoh behind Ihionvein in attack.

Conor doesn't seem to change too much, meaning the lineup on Tuesday is likely to be as familiar as an old pair of Sketchers. The one enforced change will likely see Kelly given his chance to impress in midfield, having done so from the bench in recent weeks, though it could also be Russell who takes the place of suspended Vimal Yoganathan. I personally would like to see Keillor-Dunn in a more central role, with Cleary starting out wide. Given David McGoldrick could be rested for the Tuesday night fixtures, that is a possibility for tomorrow, otherwise I don't see Connor dropping the other half of the wedding crashers, particularly after scoring in consecutive games. For the first time this season, we're likely to go unchanged at the back, with both Earl and Shepherd doing OK on Saturday and Ogbeta and Bland having solid games in the full back positions. We are still a couple of bodies light in terms of depth; whilst the rumours tend to link is with more left wingers than you'd find in the Green Party, a centre half and centre forward should surely also be on the shopping list. The 'dead wood' seems to have all been moved on now, barring the elusive Kelechi Nwakali, who appears to be doing his best Phil Gridelet/Lord Lucan impression, so further outgoings will also need to be replaced, whether significant or otherwise.

The referee is Scott Jackson, and for once, I can't think of anything negative to say about him. Probably because he's taken charge of just 2 Reds games in the past, and I don't remember much about either of them. The first being our 1-0 away win over Exeter in October 23, where John McAtee scored a last minute winner, and the 2nd being a few months later, and our 2-1 home win over Bristol Rovers, with Corey O'Keeffe of all people getting the late winner in that one. In neither game did he give an excessive amount of cards or award any penalties for weird reasons like, missed overhead kicks (Trevor Kettle once did), or try to make the game all about him from what I can remember. From what I can establish, he's never refereed Peterborough, given he's only relatively recently made the step up from non-league football. He averaged just over 4 yellows a game last season, and a red every 5 games. He's started this season off though with just 2 yellows in each of the 2 games he's officiated, and 1 penalty.

Its difficult not to feel optimistic about our chances in this one. We've made a strong start to the season, harvesting 7 points from 9 despite spending over an hour with 10 men in total. In recent years, we've been better away from home than we have at Oakwell, and generally have had the beating of Posh on their home turf. This Posh side is arguably weaker than the ones we've faced over recent years, they're in what is probably being described as a transition (despite having a very familiar manager), and haven't had a great start, albeit against largely stronger sides in the division (though a cup defeat to Accrington is alarming). I do think Posh were pre-season dark horses for relegation, given the number of key players they've lost after not having a great season last year. I'll stick with my bet from the weekend of Adam Phillips to score anytime at 17/5, as Philo has started the season in fine form. My head tells me that this one's too good to be true, and often when there's so much optimism around a fixture, there's often an anti-climax. Still, I'm going for a comfortable Reds victory, 0-2 with both goals coming in the first half hour.

You Reds!

 

I agree Phillo is on form, and DKD despite bagging a couple has looked frustrated with his misses in the last two.

That being the case, I'm backing him to take it out on Posh.

Two each for Phillo & DKD. 0-4 Reds.

 

Head says 3-1 to us. Although this is a potential banana skin of epic proportions, I'm going to go with my head.

 

Decent record at Posh, and they are struggling. Can we keep a clean sheet and 11 on the pitch?
2-1 Reds.

 

Confident of an away win, keep 11 men on the pitch and I'll go 1-3

 

3-0 reds. First clean short on the board, a goal for DKD/Kelly/Cleary.

 

We're flying, optimism is off the charts, Peterborough in a horrible ten game slump. 3-0 home win.

 

Posh 1-6 Tykes

 

We should win. We're expected to win. Our confidence is good, effort is high, hope burgeoning.

Peterborough form shocking, they've lost their best players, got off to a poor start and are under pressure.

Every Barnsley fan knows we are a club that ends runs, both good and bad. Nailed on home win! 2-1.

 

We are lacking with clean sheets and shots on target so i'll go for another 1-1.

 

1-2 COYR

 

2nd best in the league for shots on target

 

0 - 5, keep the faith, C,O,Y,R.

 

Clean Shorts on the board, must be an easy game expected

 

1 against Fleetwood and 2 against Bolton. We had 7 on target against both Plymouth and Burton. Hopefully we get back to that level.