Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony has spoken about the weekend’s fixture at London Road on his Hard Truth podcast, and there is no doubt he has delivered some hard truths.
Clearly raging, MacAnthony delivered an expletive-led analysis of the game in which he blasted Posh for an ‘unacceptable’ performance, whilst also, in fairness to him, trying not to devalue our own efforts.
Watching on from his US base, he claims the 3-0 defeat against the Imps was completely unexpected, and I imagine the mood in the MacAnthony mansion was frosty post-match, to say the least.
“It was dogsh**,” he said. “I watched the game and I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t expect that all. It’s the biggest kick in the b******ks I’ve had in a long time.
“I thought with this group we have a lot of experience, and we spent a lot of money. We brought in players we thought we promotion winners and everything else, I just didn’t see this coming.”
He did admit we changed from the game plan he expected, which led to our fast start, and that threw Darren Ferguson’s side off balance. Once we led from a free kick, something they’ve struggled with this season, the game was ours to take.
“Fair play to Lincoln, good for them and whatever, but we shouldn’t be losing 3-0 at home to anyone in League One.”
“They came out strategically, started the game differently where they came at us instead of trying to give us possession, which they do in a lot of games, and they started fast. I thought we’d start fast, and we just didn’t start.
“The first 20, 25 minutes was poor at home, good crowd, but we conceded another free kick from 25 yards and we’ve had too many of them in ten league games.”
Rightly, he also points to missed chances as key in the game. JJ Morgan hit the inside of the post at 1-0 and dragged a shot wide at 2-0, both of which could have changed the game. He also points to a header over the bar, I think Matthew Garbutt nodded over at 1-0.
“The worst part of the game is the three chances we missed were probably easier than the ones they scored. The were three absolute sitter.
“The worst part was we come out second half, and they scored the second goal, and the player just had no belief. If it was the same youngsters from the start of the season, I get the lack of belief, but the players we have now in the team with the promotion and experience on their CV, I didn’t see that.”
The whole interview is worth a listen, and even when we’re not the focus, I do like his podcast and I do like his openess (wouldn’t like it from our chairman, obviously). You can find it on Spotify, and I think it goes on YouTube on a Thursday.
MacAnthony, who invested in the club after watching Big Ron Manager back in 2006, a programme that covered their collapse and our replacing them in the play-offs, also praised the level of our coaching, although he didn’t have a lot of love for Tendayi Darikwa’s goal.
“They were well coached and they were defensively strong. They basically sat back in the second half, went to five at the back and it was a flat back five. We played well for six or seven minutes, and then they scored a crappy second goal and then it was easy for them for the rest of the game.
“We made Lincoln look like Birmingham last year, and Lincoln have had a great start, I’m not trying to discredit them, but we didn’t lose the Birmingham game by three last year.
‘That was unacceptable on Saturday and I made that clear to everybody involved. I’m sure the manager feels the same way I do.”
Honestly, I’ve had a bad week, but I have been looking forward to listening to that to give me a slight smile, and Darragh didn’t disappoint.
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