Ahh, like settling back into a favourite armchair or popping on an old pair of slippers, isn’t it nice to be back in familiar surroundings?? Well, quite frankly no, it’s not….. I don’t believe a single one of us is really glad to be back here in the surrounds of League 1 (or Division 3 in old money), however it does represent a bit of an opportunity for a re-set within the club which I’m sure we ARE all agreed on was much needed (and if rumours are to be believed then that re-set may even include new owners sometime in the not too distant future). With a new gaffer in the form of Brian Barry (Island) Murphy at the helm we can (by all accounts) expect a very different approach to the game from what we have become used to – sadly though, at the time of writing that new approach is also having to be kick-started with a distinct lack of signings, meaning without doubt that we will be very heavily reliant on some fairly green youngsters, at least for this initial phase of the season. Will that be a good or a bad thing? Who knows?? All I know is that I’m just happy to see the return of club football and a chance to see some different teams for us to pit our wits against. Who Are You? We open our new campaign against Peterborough United, or as we generally know them as, Minxy’s Posh lot. Formed in 1934 at Peterborough's Angel Hotel to provide a replacement for Peterborough & Fletton United, who had folded two years previously, Peterborough applied to join the Midland League. This was welcomed by the league, however, the representatives from the club did not have the money to pay for the security deposit, entry fee and subscription, so Grantham Town loaned the money to The Posh who then began selling shares to raise funds. Since being elected to the football league (Division 4) in 1960, Posh have never reached higher than the 2nd tier within the football league with 10th spot in the 2nd tier their highest ever finish (1992-93 season). Currently managed by the long serving Darren Ferguson (now in his 4th spell at the club), Posh finished a disappointing 18th in League 1 last season, avoiding the drop int League 2 by a narrow 5 points. Joint top scorers last season were Kawmi Poku & Malik Mothersille with 12 a piece. Poku has seen his contract expire and has subsequently moved on to QPR, whilst Mothersille has moved on to divisional rivas Stockport County in an £800k club record deal. Next on the scoring charts was previously Bluebird linked wide man Ricky Jade-Jones with 10. He too has moved to Bundesliga side FC St Pauli after his contract expired, so our opening day opponents have lost all 3 of their key goal-scorers from last season – quite a blow I’m sure, especially when you throw in the loss of the experienced keeper Jed Steer (released), Emmanuel Fernandez (Rangers) and Hector Kyprianou (Watford). Five new faces have arrived so far in the current transfer window in the form of Alex Bass, Sam Hughes, Brandon Khela, Declan Frith and Kyrell Lisbie. In all honesty, from looking at their current squad, there’s not a single name that leaps out at me as being particularly familiar and it looks like a fair few of their team have recently stepped up from the non-league ranks so one would suspect that another season of struggle may be in order. In saying all that though, credit where it’s due, Posh did win a trophy last season – totally widdling all over Birmingham’s parade in the process when they picked up the EFL Trophy for the 2nd time in succession at Wembley (bravo Posh, bravo – football salutes you ) The classier Birmingham City fans decide to stay behind for the EFL trophy presentation to show their appreciation for the well-deserved victors….. First And Last First time we ever played Peterborough was in an FA cup 3rd round match back in January 1954. Played at Ninian Park, the game finished in a 3-1 win for the Bluebirds over the then Midland Football League side. 2 goals from Trevor Ford and 1 from Tommy Northcott in front of 34,000 saw the Bluebirds progress to round 4. City would go on to draw Port Vale in the next round (Vale of course happen to be our next league opponents this season weirdly) – sadly for the Bluebirds they would be eliminated by the 3rd Division North team following a 2-0 home defeat in front of a 27,000 strong crowd. Last time out saw the Bluebirds romp to a comfortable 4-0 home win against Posh in what could have been a rather tense relegation battle. Goals from Ralls, Flint, Hugill and big Uche Ikpeazu put a massive dent in Peterboro’s hopes of retaining their then Championship status whilst boosting our own survival hopes massively with this game being the 3rd win on the bounce and providing a 12 point gap between us and our visitors who stayed in 22nd spot. Form Obviously this is taken from last season, so some context needs to be born in mind when interpreting this, however, our respective form over the last 6 games of last season was pretty much identical with 3 draws and 3 defeats each. As far as pre season goes, Posh come away from 5 games with 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat (away at Grimsby) compared to our 3 draws and 1 win. As we all know though, Posh have tended to be a bit of a bogey side for us, fingers crossed we can emulate that last scoreline!! On The Pitch Trying to guess our starting line-up would be folly but we know our newly named captain Calum Chambers is suspended and we’ve picked up a couple of knocks in pre-season already. Hopes are high that we could see a Robinson/Salech combo up top – a duo that should be good enough to create and score a few in this division – though just whether we can keep hold of both of them beyond the transfer window remains to be seen. The Odds Just had a glance at the local bookies window - here we go. So, what do we think then folks? We'll sart with a cagey home win is my guess, just whilst we settle into our new patterns of play and get some new bodies in through the door (apparently some are imminent if the gossip is true). Let's hope we get off to a flyer eh? C'mon the City!!
Ahh, good to be back. Thanks Brizzle. We might have dropped a Division, but the standard of the build up hasn't.
Excellent preview BB. Certainly no drop in standard. As for our team, apart from Salech and/or Robbo, the only starting certainty appears to be captain for the day, Rubin.
A bit of light hearted banter to get the season started. https://tv.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/videos/b8205ad3-384d-4558-ac2a-6ec482d4a646
