[jjamez]

It feels like its been a while since we last met in Yorkshire, but on Saturday, Huddersfield welcome a rival from yesteryear to the John Smiths Stadium in the form of Darren Ferguson's Peterborough United. The old rivalry stemming from when the two sides used to butt heads the last time Town were in this division, with both sides often chasing the same players like Craig Mackail-Smith, who rejected us to sign for them, and for a good few seasons the two sides often battled in and around the playoffs. Peterborough would gain promotion to the Championship at Towns expense over at Old Trafford but more on that in a bit, Town would gain their revenge a couple of seasons later, when they conspired to relegate the Posh back to League One. In more recent times that rivalry has somewhat died down with the two sides going in different directions until reuniting once again this season.

I'd say still managed by Darren Ferguson, but this is probably his 12th stint as manager of the club, he got them promoted against us and was manager of the side when we condemned them to relegation in his second spell as manager. His first spell in charge came in 2006 and lasted until 2009, having recorded back to back promotions from League Two to the Championship, only to return in 2010, for the aforementioned promotion against us. He left for the second time in 2015, to be replaced by David Robertson until Graham Westley was appointed as full time manager. He didn't last the season and Robertson was back at the helm until Grant McCann came in as boss, another who seemed to bounce back to Peterborough often enough. His first stint lasted a year and a bit until Steve Evans came in to show them what football should look like, he failed and once again owner Darragh MacAnthony wielded his axe and sent out an SOS to Ferguson. He was in charge during the COVID years and got them promoted back to the Championship in 2021, with Jonson Clarke-Harris bagging 31 goals in the league that season. The next season, Clarke-Harris couldn't match his goalscoring feat and Ferguson was once again sacked and replaced by McCann for his second stint in charge. That season Town drew 1-1 in Peterborough with Danny Ward scoring, whilst Tom Lees bagged a brace in a 3-0 win in Yorkshire. Incidentally, it was the last time the sides met until this campaign. McCann remained as manager until the January of 2023, when, once again, he was sacked by MacAnthony and replaced in the dugout, Ferguson who came in for his fourth spell in charge and has been at the helm ever since. So maybe not the 12th spell as I said, but close enough.



This season, the Posh were largely expected to be in and around the play offs, but have been disappointing so far this term and currently sit in 20th, 2 points above the drop zone. With one win in their last 5, they have been on the receiving end of a few chastising defeats, including a 3-1 loss to fellow strugglers Bristol Rovers and a 5-1 defeat away at Lincoln. I'm not going to go into what has happened since we last played them as it was the first game of season, however, discipline seems to be a bit of an issue with 3 players being sent off since boxing day, but Town hardly ever do well against 11 men, let alone 10. Town meanwhile should, should being the key word, be looking to capitalise on the two recent away wins and looking to keep the pressure on the automatic chasing teams. Whilst the performances against Barnsley and Shrewsbury haven't been great, they have yielded the right results, Wycombe are currently 8 points ahead, which is a fair whack considering they don't seem to lose many and often get awarded late penalties, it still only takes them to have a run of form similar to what we have just had for them to get drawn back in. Wrexham have had recent form similar to ours and have come back to only 3 points ahead, whilst Stockport are the form side at the moment and whilst only 2 points ahead of Town, they have come from behind to get to where they are, obviously not fazed by the loss of Louie Barry. Town do have to play all three once again plus the surging Leyton Orient and Charlton, Wrexham, Wycombe and Orient all have to come here, whilst Town still have to travel to Charlton and Stockport. Orient is the last game of the season which could be tantalizing and nervy, but there's still a few twists and turns to come before then.

It is fair to say that Peterborough have been under achieving this season considering some of the players they have at their disposal, the likes of Ricky-Jade Jones, Kwame Poku, Archie Collins and Hector Kyprianou, all of whom have been highly sought after in recent transfer windows, with Jones attracting interest from Cardiff in the last window and captain Kyprianou rumoured to have been close to a move to Cardiff's rivals Swansea. The Posh managed to keep hold of the two for now but may find it a struggle come summer, as they found out last year when talented youngsters Harrison Burrows and Ronnie Edwards both departed for decent money to Sheffield United and Southampton respectively. Whilst Poku is expected to be out injured for a couple more weeks, manager Ferguson hoping to have him for the last dozen games, stating he felt that he was the best player in the league, typical Ferguson delusion considering the quality in Birmingham's squad alone. The rest are the ones to look out for, coupled with former Chelsea youth Malik Mothersille, who once had a trial with us. Collins and Kyprianou both operate in the centre of midfield, both offering energy and robustness much like David Kasumu, Mothersille offers a pacy option usually from the left flank, whilst Jones is arguably one of the quickest players in Europe let alone England, still quite raw in what he does, he causes trouble with pace alone, but maybe hasn't quite got the end product sorted just yet, he still has 7 goals this term and will need to be watched, especially if he gets isolated up against Tom Lees, to make things worse, Brodie Spencer will be missing once again, meaning the backline pace will have to be Sorensen and Balker, they also possess a bit of height at the back so it does make it confusing as to why they are where they are.



In their current squad they have 3 former town players in the form of current number one Jed Steer, who had a loan spell here the season before Danny ward helped us to promotion I believe, their number two Nicholas Bilokapic, the Australian joined them last season when town surprisingly sold him when he initially thought he was going on loan. However, maybe we kept the right Australian keeper in Chapman. Bilokapic definitely had potential, but he has lost his place this term after a few costly blunders. The final member that has been at town is Donay O'brien-brady, who never made a professional appearance for town and was released, joining Peterborough after a trial. Going slightly further back, Ramoney Critchlow was part of the Peterborough side, another who was tipped highly at Town, he suddenly made the move away and it looked like the right move when he became a feature of their backline, but for one reason or another he found himself exiled, even dropping into non league for a loan at Dagenham and Redbridge, in January he returned to Bradford City where he had had a loan whilst on Towns books. Towns highly desired striker Joe Taylor hails from Peterborough and had a 2 year spell at the club but failed to score before moving to Luton, where he also failed to score, but had impressive loans at Colchester and Lincoln which caught Mark Cartwrights eye, taking up to January to get him through the door, he will once again be missing Saturday through injury with his return expected sometime next month. Midfielder Reece Brown had three separate loan spells at Peterborough from Town, making 56 appearances for the Posh, he failed to make a league appearance for Town, another questionable signing that we have made, although this one came when we had just been relegated from the Premier League. Another midfielder that seemed to have promise or that was the reason we signed him was Kyle Dempsey, the versatile player was used in a few different roles by David Wagner before being loaned to Fleetwood. He would sign permanently for the west coast club and had a short loan at Peterborough before heading south to Gillingham, he is currently injured at Bolton.



Harry Toffolo had a short loan early in his career at Peterborough as did journeyman striker Liam Dickinson. Goalkeeper Paul Rachubka had a short loan, making 4 appearances for the Posh in 2006 when he deputised from Town. If you want to go further back, Aidy Boothroyd finished his career at Peterborough, having started it at Town, even further back, Ian Bennett played for the Posh, before I was even born, and he was still playing well into my time as a fan for us. Iain Dunn had a short stay at Peterborough before he made a home in Huddersfield and if anyone can add any more please feel free to do so.



In terms of head to heads, 29 meetings in total, with Town winning 12, drawing 7 and losing 10. The first meeting was back in 1957 when Town would beat the Posh 3-1 in the FA Cup 4th round. The first league meeting would take place nearly 20 years later when the Posh did the league double over Town in the old Division Three, winning both games 2-1. It would be 4 years later when Town registered their first league victory, this time in Division 4. Over a decade later and the sides would meet again in Division three, with Peterborough once again coming out on top, beating Town in the play offs to boot. Town would get promoted the following season and the sides would reacquaint themselves in Division Two, but Peterborough would once again prove to be a bogey side. In the mid 90's Town would again knock Posh out of the FA Cup in the 4th round but would not face up until after the turn of the century when both sides were in Division Two. Town would go on a streak against Posh, winning 2-1 and 3-1 in the 2001/02 season, a year later the two sides would trade 1-0 victories as Town were relegated. In the 04/05 season Town would do a 2-1 double over Peterborough as they dropped down, with the sides then not meeting for a further 3 years, when Town succumbed 4-0 down at London Road, there was a slight bounce back as Town won 1-0 at home with Lee Clark now at the helm, the Posh would get promoted that season as Town missed out on the playoffs but a season later Peterborough would drop from the Championship and Town would lose in the playoffs against Millwall to meet once again. Posh would win 4-2 down at London Road before a 1-1 at the John Smiths thanks to a last minute Jack Hunt equaliser, this was either side of a 3-2 win in the Johnstones Paint trophy, despite Town trying to throw away a 3 goal lead. The end of the season finished in tears for Town as the sides met at Old Trafford in the Playoff final, with Lee Clark opting to bench the prolific Jordan Rhodes in favour of playing Benik Afobe as the lone striker. It would be 0-0 up to the 78th minute before 3 goals in 7 minutes for Peterborough blindsided Town, at 1-0 down, instead of bringing a goal machine on, Clark elected to bring Cadamarteri on, it would be 2-0 before Alan Lee and Rhodes were thrown on in a desperate attempt to rescue something. Cue a lot of believe shirts being tossed away and Peterborough owner MacAnthony saying we could shove them up our arses at their victory parade.



They would survive the next season and Town would obviously get promoted at Wembley against Sheffield United, the season back in the Championship saw Town lose heavily at London Road 3-1 before drawing 2-2 at the John Smiths. That season would see Town and Barnsley play keep ball as both sides survived and sent Peterborough down. It would be nearly a decade before the sides met again, Town would endure the Premier League, Peterborough League One, the game at London Road would end 1-1 with Danny Ward scoring for Carlos Corberans side, the game at the John Smith's would finish 3-0 with Danel Sinani and Tom Lees scoring inside the first 10 minutes with Lees grabbing a second late on, Peterborough would get relegated that season and Town would fail to turn up at Wembley and ultimately join Peterborough two seasons later. The first game of the season saw Town win 2-0 thanks to goals from Ben Wiles and Anthony Evans, both of whom would be most welcome scorers come Saturday.



With regards to team news, Town have an extensive list of players out, with Herbie Kane now joining them for 8 weeks. He won't be alone and will have Mikel Miller, Rhys Healey, Danny Ward, Matty Pearson, Joe Taylor, Ruben Rooskens and Tom Iorpenda for company. Brodie Spencer is still suspended but Nigel Lonwijk is set to return to the squad after being out with the rare muscle injury, although it is probably too much to expect him to start. Radinho Balker picked up a few knocks on Tuesday night, but it seems as though he will be good to go for another game in quick succession, not that he has much choice in the matter considering how threadbare we are at the moment. Peterborough will be without Kwame Poku and will be looking to register a rare away win having registered just two all season, both coming at the end of August when they beat Exeter and Shrewsbury.

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one jjamez.

That FA Cup game in the 50s that you mentioned was a memorable one for the young Denis Law. He scored his first FA Cup goal and would go on to be the record goalscorer in the competition's history.

[theo_luddite]

Nice one again jjamez. That afternoon at home to Barnsley just doesn't get old.

Also just noticed, though it won't affect most of you, no trains on The Chiltern Line due to planned maintenance when we play Charlton away on 29h March (and 30th). As it's one of my favourite away days and assuming the tellybox boys and girls don't shift it, I'll be looking for alternative travel plans. That usually means the generally more expensive trains to Euston.

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Nice one jjamez.....you say the rivalry has died down....but not for me.
Still hate them just as much as walking back from Old Trafford with every Posh fans' car blaring their horns at us and shouting "Believe"
Grrrr

[WakeyTerrier]

Nice one again jjamez. That afternoon at home to Barnsley just doesn't get old.

Also just noticed, though it won't affect most of you, no trains on The Chiltern Line due to planned maintenance when we play Charlton away on 29h March (and 30th). As it's one of my favourite away days and assuming the tellybox boys and girls don't shift it, I'll be looking for alternative travel plans. That usually means the generally more expensive trains to Euston.

Do you have a railcard? If not get one…they can save you a small fortune.


As for today, it’s the old enemy from way down the A1…we need a win, they need a win…it’s got 0-0 written all over it.

It’s not the Old Trafford defeat that sticks with me, it’s that Thursday night at Leeds Road. That is still fresh in the memory all these years on.

[jjamez]

Marshall and lees rumoured to be out injured.

Glad I swerved this one otherwise id be playing

[Lord Snooty]

What a bloody shambles!

[Lord Snooty]

Absolute garbage!

[theo_luddite]

I've had a Railcard since I qualified for one Wakey. I buy a 3 year one and I know I got my money back in spades in those two seasons in the Prima Donna League.

After today's abject performance I'm wondering why I put the effort of a 2 hour and change drive in plus public transport after I park at my bro's if the 11 of any shape or size can't put the effort in on the park for a shorter period of time. No shots on target against the worst defence in the division isn't acceptable or defendable. On top of that I had 4 long walks between home, railway stations and the ground on Tuesday. There was a bit more effort there but we also got a lucky win.

I might just go have a day out in Larndan and sod the football. Spend the ticket and tube money on a nice steak and and a bottle of wine.

Then again, I could save the train fare and do that in Wolvo.

Speaking of which, one of my Baggies mates has sent me a text to say he's got a spare ticket for Wolves v Fulham on Tuesday. (Controversial, I know). Having another peep at Smith Rowe's skills won't do any harm now will it? He's head and shoulders above the Wolves lads they've loaned us.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

I narrowly avoided being on the radio. I texted and they rang for me to go on but they couldn't hear me.