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And Here We Go Again!
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What does this year have in store?
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By:
Eric Hitchmo
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17/07/2011
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More On Peterborough United
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"Well? Did you miss us? Didn't you miss us? You must have missed us more than you missed football. In a way...
Isn't the first pre-season game a momentous occasion? Reunited with those you've not seen for all of ten weeks when you were running round the Underhill turf with childish glee. The summer of no football flew by with little sign of sunny weather, see yesterday's wet and grey day as point of reference, and aside from the rain the air is filled with the sound of the question everybody asks at this time of year - ""so how do you think we'll get on next year then"". My answer stayed pretty uniform. I don't think we'll be too bad under Lawrie Sanchez, for the record.
We've made a couple of very nice acquisitions from last year's loanee pool, namely Sam Deering and Mark Byrne whilst losing a couple of key names in Jake Cole and Joe Devera. Devera has joined relegated Swindon having won his second player of the year award with the club. I'm not quite sure how the latter part happened. Towards the end of the season, yes, Devera was back to his solid best, but for the rest he was a shadow of what had made him a dependable member of the team. I guess that could be said for the rest of the team, it would have been almost impossible to pick out a 'best' player from the first seven months of the season. If it had been up to me it would have been a Deering clean sweep, just so you know. Devera didn't even feature in the top ten of the player ratings on this here website, voted for regularly by 50+ individuals. The rating game will continue into 2011-2012, by the way.
I still feel like we could do with a few additions in key positions, such as centre back where yesterday we started with Clovis Kamdjo and Anwar Uddin. This doesn't fill me with high confidence I must admit. A number of trialists were on show, but to nowhere near the levels that we have seen in recent years. Whether that's a good thing is debatable. We've seen both the good (2003-2004) and the ugly (2010-2011) sides of building a team almost entirely from scratch. The nucleus of a good side is there, and managing to keep of Steve Kabba was great news this week, as long as we can keep him fit. He's currently injured.
It is folly to get too carried away by pre-season performances but it was a perfect start as Izale McLeod opened the scoring within 30 seconds. I'm not even convinced that Peterborough touched the ball in this time. Mark Marshall delivered a low ball from the by line after good build up play in the midfield, and McLeod lashed the ball into the corner. Nice. Ricky Holmes doubled the lead after fifteen minutes when he was allowed all the time in the world to pick his spot after being put through on goal and he finished very neatly into the top corner. How exciting. I very nearly stood up and broke into frenzied applause. Oddly, the game was segregated with the Posh following situated in the seated away bit (does it have a name?). They had something to clap about when they pulled one back before half time through Lee Frecklington. Having had a poor start, the visitors were fighting their way back into the game, and had been denied five minutes previously by a smart save from trialist Stuart Searle. He can also kick a ball a long way too. Good attributes for a 'keeper, then.
Changes aplenty in the second half, as Posh fielded a more or less different team after the break. Posh also fielded a side at Kettering Town yesterday. How many players do they have?! Almost as quickly as Barnet had scored in the first half, Posh equalised almost as quickly in the second. Lee Tomlin notched Posh's equaliser, which judging by the amount of people in the bar at half time, wasn't really commom knowledge. A lot of people must have thought we were still 2-1 up as the final whistle sounded. I am assured however that it did finish two apiece.
Rather than analysing trialist performances, my main talking point of the day was the kit. Whilst I'll take a bit of convincing on the design, the COLOUR. THE COLOUR! They've got it right! Have the club finally realised that THAT is most definitely what AMBER looks like. Well bloody done. The only picture I can find is on the Posh site. It does look good doesn't it?
Until Wednesday then, when we take on Tony Adams' Azerbaijani Premier League side Gabala. Something a bit different I guess!"
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