2019/20 Prediction League; Game 29 v Peterborough United (home)

Div3North · 27-01-2020, 00:25

Peterborough United

v

Accrington Stanley

2019/20 Prediction League; Game 29 v Posh Spice (home)

Peterborough is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, with a population of just over 200,000; historically, it was part of Northamptonshire. Its original name Medeshamstede means that it may possibly have been an Anglian settlement prior to AD 655, when Sexwulf founded a monastery on land granted to him for that purpose by Peada of Mercia, who converted to Christianity and was briefly ruler of the Middle Angles sub-group. His brother Wulfhere murdered his own sons, similarly converted and then finished the monastery by way of atonement. Apparently Hereward the Wake rampaged through the town in 1069 or 1070 on his way to a book-signing.

It’s 76 miles north of London, on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea 30 miles to the north-east. The city is also 70 miles east of Birmingham, 38 miles east of Leicester, 81 miles south of Hull and 65 miles west of Norwich; over the years, many aircraft and dozens of ships have vanished without trace in the Fenland surrounding it; locally it’s known as the Poshaburra Quadrangle …… in some places the land lies below sea level, which explains why so many of the population have wet feet (wet feet, not webbed feet)

The population grew rapidly after the railways arrived in the 19th century, and Peterborough became an industrial centre, particularly known for its brick manufacture; in fact the local Footie team have been bricking it for many years …………... In the 1960s it was designated as a New Town, and a £1 billion regeneration of the city centre and immediately surrounding area is under way. Industrial employment has fallen since then, a significant proportion of new jobs being in financial services and distribution.

And I’m going to change my name to Sexwulf! Hhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwlllllllllll!

So, this week’s Starter for Ten; who moved Peterborough from Northamptonshire to Cambridgeshire, and did they do it brick by brick, or did McAlpines do it for them?

The club was founded in 1934, and could have been the Peterborough Angels if they'd taken the name of the place where they were created (The Angel Hotel); they played in the Midland League until 1960, when the Stanley were relegated to Division 4, Southport, Oldham and Hartlepools United were re-elected but Gateshead weren’t, and the aforementioned CrateHeads ceded their place to the Posh; in their first season as a League club Posh won 28 times, drew 10 and lost 8, winning the title by 2 points from Ally - no, make that Crystal - Palace, and 6 from the Cobblers and Bratfud, and scoring 85 goals and home and 49 away (134!) At home they fired one blank, scored one goal once, 2 goals four times, three goals six times, four four times, five twice (Carlisle 5-0 and Darlington 5-1), six goals 3 times (Barrow and Donnie 6-2, and Chester 6-0 (plus winning 6-0 at Stockport), and they scored seven goals twice (Aldershot and Exeter, both 7-1) – and Terry Bly topped the scorer’s list with 52 (yes, fifty-two) …………… and the following season they finished 5th in the Third Division, and only managed a paltry 107 goals……………

Those who live by the sword, so they say – well, so they said, really, because no one carries a sword these days (except Ceremonialing People and criminals) – so, anyway, those who live by the sword, die by the sword, even if it is only once (unless your name’s Lazarus) ……. So with the Posh then this season; they’ve beaten the MKDonuts 4-0 away, the Rochdoodles 6-0 at home, the Stanley 4-0 at home, and Wycombe 4-0 at home …………… but this time they also lost 4-3 at Blackpool, 4-0 at Rotherham, and 4-2 at Burnley in the FA Cup Round 3 ……………..in their 37 games so far (League and Cups) they’ve scored 64 times, but they’ve also conceded 44 ……. There are rumours that Celtic are interested in leading scorer Ivan Benjamin Elijah Toney, once of the Toon, and if you take Toney, Mo Eisa and Marcus Maddison away (wish we could!), you’d remove 40 of their 50 League goals at a stroke …………… their home record is W9 D3 L2 GF31 GA 13, their record on the road is a fairly tatty W3 D4 L7 GF19 GA23 (losses at Oxford, Donnie, Blackpool, Shrewsbury, Rotherham, Lincoln and Wimbledon – indeed, the last time they won on the road was on 19th October, when they did the Gills over (2-1)), and although they’ve won their last two (4-0 against Wycombe and 2-1 agin The Millers (not including The Miller’s Daughter)) – before that they’d only won one of eight (D3 L4), or going back further, 3 out of 12. The fact that they don’t travel very well is good news for us, even though our home record isn’t thrilling (W5 D2 L5 – 17 points against the 30 the Posh have got at London Road)

Since we played them (well, pretended to play them - we lost 4-0) they’ve ProperSigned Barnet MF Jack Taylor (remember him? Refereed the 74 World Cup Final?) for £500,000 and LoanSigned Huddersfield CMF Reece Brown (who only joined the Terriers in June 2019, having turned down a new contract at Vegan Greenpeace United) and ex Colchester and now Bristol Citties (although he’s only had 107 minutes across three games) AMF Sammie Szmodics, who despite an unusual surname (for which I can find no origins or meaning) was actually born in the same town as I was ……………. And he’s a possible target for Ipswich and Hull, as well as Huddersfield ………

And a second Starter for Ten – this time more seriously………… What 2002 event connects Victoria Beckham and Peterborough United FC?

They’ve been managed over the years by some famous names; former Blades, Spurs, Forest and Newcastle left half Jim Iley, West Ham and Man U star Noel Cantwell, Mick Jones, Mark Lawrenson (for 14 months), Barry Fry, Keith Alexander, that nice Mr Westlife (whose team are still bottom of League Two) and that even nicer Mr Evans ……………….. Tommy Robson played 482 games for them and Eric Steele appeared in 148 consecutive games (wasn’t he Leader of the Liberals? Or was he the pop singer?); Jim Hall’s 122 goals is still their record; they made the Quarter Final of the FA Cup in 1964/65 (losing 5-1 at Chelsea) and the Semi Final of the League Cup the year after (losing 6-3 on aggregate over two legs to the Baggies), and they won the Football League (aka Johnston’s Paint) Trophy in 2013/14, seeing off TwistySpires United 3-1 in the Final (and Chesterfield are still in the bottom four of the Bananarama, along with AFC Fylde, Ebbsfleet and Chorley)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45 on Tuesday 28th January; last season we did them 1-0 at theirs (the goal credited to “Conville”), but they did us back 4-0 at ours just before New Year, with a Toney hattrick ………….. so that’s two 4-0 defeats in our last two meetings …………… which isn’t thrilling, TBH ………………… Decent point on Saturday, great to see Billy Whizz ………. And in 2002 Victoria Beckham filed a claim with the UK Patent Office over Peterborough’s use of the name "Posh", claiming the nickname 'Posh' had become synonymous with her as Posh Spice "on a worldwide basis". She lost ……. Let’s hope that we don’t!

Onwards and Upwards ………………. Which has to be better than Backwards and Downwards ……………. At least, you’d think so!

Good luck to everyone! ……………. Keep the Faith! ………………. And thanks for playing!