The Lower League Week – Posh Peterborough slaughter the Royals

Poolie Till I Cry

Mad excitement is not a phrase that could be used to describe Hartlepool United’s start to the season. Depending on interpretation, the lowlight of Pools’ season so far could be failing to get any shots on target at York, or failing to score against ten men Southend for 45 minutes. Pools now haven’t scored in the opening four league games – the last of the teams in the Football League and Conferences not to have netted in a league match. It’s not a recent problem either – the home team has failed to score at Victoria Park in 33 of the most recent 66 matches.

As a Hartlepool fan, I’m confident that the current position of second from bottom will be improved on by the end of the season, but the ongoing lack of goals is a millstone to any hopes of development.

Posh Slaughters are Common

It’s not been a bad week for Peterborough. At the weekend they beat Tranmere 5-0. Admittedly against a team who’ve only one point and are going through their worst start in 32 years, but you can’t sniff at that kind of result.

They’ll have expected a midweek League Cup tie against recently ex-Premier League Reading to prove a sterner test…yet they won 6-0. Reading rested key players like Royston Drenthe, Nick Blackman and recent Liverpool target Alex Pearce, but recognisable names like Adam Federici, Adam Le Fondre and Pavel Pogrebnyak started. Peterborough have now scored 23 in six, winning all their games.

Despite the speed at which they’ve adapted to League One, they’ve had obstacles that could potentially have disrupted them. The job of replacing Dwight Gayle was only completed three days before the season started when Britt Assombalonga signed, while Tyrone Barnett, who has been on the transfer list since November for disciplinary reasons, has scored three goals in six games. Squad player Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Gabriel Zakuani, who played every minute of the season until midweek, are also transfer-listed because of the same incident, while Tommy Rowe, who was transfer listed after rejecting a new contract offer, has played a part in every game, scoring three. Lee Tomlin, who slapped in a transfer request in the summer, has been a key player, netting six in six (albeit three from the penalty spot).

During Darren Ferguson’s two spells in charge of Peterborough, they’ve won three promotions, but never as champions. Given that Peterborough picked up 42 points from the last 25 games in the Championship last year and have made very few changes in or out, there seems a strong chance that could be improved upon.

Peterborough fans will probably have a lot of fun this year. Courtesy of Richard Humphrey

Chesterfield’s Backbone

The key to winning titles, apparently, is grinding out wins when not playing well.

If that’s true, then Chesterfield’s weekend win – opening the scoring and grabbing a stoppage time winner to defeat Southend 2-1 is their best result so far. Southend had won all of their first three games, while Chesterfield now have 10 points from four games, sitting just one goal off the top of League Two.

Chesterfield manager Paul Cook, despite seeing his side create twice as many shots and shots on target as their visitors, described the display as ‘lethargic’ – but squeezing out a victory against a team with a perfect record is nothing to be sniffed at. Gary Roberts has settled in quickly, his goal being his third since his summer move from Swindon, where he won League Two two years ago. He’s looked very impressive and direct even on highlights – that and the manager’s insistence that the statistically impressive weekend display was disappointing both bode well for the season as a whole.

Wycombe’s Financial Wonders

It’s always a tough balancing act between retaining the club’s best players and cashing in to strengthen the squad. Wycombe Wanderers have done very well this week, picking up a “generous” portion of Matt Phillips’ £5 million transfer from Blackpool to QPR, while they’ve sold Charles Dunne, a left-back in the last year of his contract, to Blackpool and loaned him back until the end of the season.

Not a bad bit of business.