Game Sixty Two - Peterborough away

28 March 2009

If MK Dons had been the original 'big one' then this was to be known as the 'epic one.' Exactly one month after the last clash of the top two, MK Dons have dramatically fallen away from the automatic promotion race and Peterborough have emerged as our main rivals for promotion after 7 wins in 8 have brought them to within 7 points of us. In the week building up to the game, we knew that a win would almost guarentee our return to the championship as champions of league one, defeat and we would be sweating having only a four point lead.

This was to be Lisa's designated birthday match and so a decent sized gathering of people arrived at Leicester train station to hop on board the 9:15 train to Peterborough. While we knew it would be rammed, I don't think we anticipated just how rammed it would be as the good old rail company put on a train with only two coaches. With 4000 City fans making the trip, you would think they would have known there would be a higher demand for the service than normal.

So at 9:15, me, Jodie, Bert, Chloe, Lisa, Carl, James, Sparky, Bilo, Fatah, Lovejoy and anyone else I missed out, all squeezed in together and began the hour long train ride getting closer than we imagined. Many fun and games were had though and a nice chat about how great Syston was as the train sped through the place and we had Jodie getting stuck in the toilet. Classic stuff.

With about 10 minutes of the journey left to go, a Chinese woman who had been bouncing her baby to keep it amused made the schoolboy error of bouncing it onto the emergency stop button. Now if you have stood on a train, you know what happens when a train stops quite quickly - everyone nearly falls over. Now imagine a rammed train that grinds to a hault... funny image eh? Especially when those people are falling into you!

We finally got into Peterborough and met up with Katy and Stez who had travelled in from Grantham and also finally met up with Daggers who had been on the same train as us, holding his bladder for dear life.

As we head off to the pub, we decided to take a cut through the shopping centre only for the security guards to stop half of the group outside telling us that we wernt going any further. Despite the fact that half of us had been allowed in, they made certain that we had to go around and so sent us on our way - so much for basic human rights!! Instead we walked around to the pub so that people could collect tickets and stuff. Lisa, Katy and co headed off in search of a less crowded pub while the rest of us headed over to the bookies for a cheeky bet or two (bloody Wales!!) and then on to the ground with Jodie attracting the attention of a rather friendly female home fan. I think Jodie was a little scared at one point!

We finally got into the ground and made our way to the front of the terrace with Bert, Chloe and Jodie holding the area whilst I went over to see Helen and Colleen. We were soon joined by Joe x 2, Lil Dave, angry dad, James, Katy, Stez, Lisa, Carl, Daggers and Tommeh to complete Foxestalk terrace just like Bristol Rovers last month. Smuts, Wilkesy and Jess turned up late and Fez was to join us at half time to round things off.

You've gotta love terracing and that at London Road is a good old fashioned terrace, quite shallow with everyone all crammed in together. You had the feeling that this had the potential to be an amazing day.

As the teams came out, the away fans were in good voice with virtually every player getting his own song sung about them as we waited for kick off. The home fans on the other hand remained silent as we taunted them with "just like a cemetary" and other songs.

The game report will be short and swift as I don't really want to recall the events of the game as it didn't live up to the potential it should have done. As the wind caused massive problems with clearing the ball any real distance, the game was a very scrappy affair with some tasty challenges flying in.

Neither side created any real chances but Peterborough looked the better side, although that was to be expected as we had many players out through injury, suspension and international call ups. Combine that with the fact that the referee was wearing a blue shirt very similar, if not identical to that of the home side, and you have a defeat staring you in the face.

With the action on the pitch leaving little to the imagination, it was left to us fans to create our own fun and the random positioning of some people on the terrace caused amusement. As well as this lot standing on whatever they could find, there were a couple of people lying down over the exit signs with their heads down to see under the roof. Just like the good old days.

In the 43rd minute, Peterborough took the lead when some awful defending from a corner allowed Charlie Lee time to round one defender, then a second and take advantage of an Oakley slip to curl a shot past Warner into the corner. Bollocks. To make matters worse, the heavens had opened and we got pelted by hail and rain to leave us one goal down and sodden. At one point we even had to turn away from the pitch because of how hard the hail stones were pelting us.

While others used hoods to keep them dry, I opted for the now famous Ivory Coast scarf - a quite special look I'm sure you will agree.

At least half time was entertaining as we all chatted amongst ourselves and stuff but sadly that only lasted for 15 minutes and we soon had to get back to the dismal performance!

City continued to create no chances of any real note apart from one great move which released Dickov but the striker took about 200 touches too many and the chance was gone when it looked a simple finish. It had been such a great chance that there had been a mini surge forward in anticipation of the net rippling.

Lil Dave wasn't impressed....

As the game went on, it was clear that we wouldnt get anything from the game and we really missed Steve Howard up front to create the link between Fryatt and the midfield.

There was nothing much else to really comment on apart from how bad the officials were and contributed to us getting nothing from the day. Tony Warner made a couple of great saves to keep us in it but with ten minutes to go, our fate was sealed when Whelpdale smashed the ball home after good work from Makail-Smith.

All that was left to do was miss a couple of chances to complete the misery (step forward Kisnorbo and Adams) and the game was done. The gap down to four points and a nasty brown stain starting to form in our pants.

As we made our way out the ground, angry dad put his foot in his mouth with an irish man as he commented on the england game and we made our way into town just as the heavens opened once more. Dripping wet and having lost a lot of people, we said goodbye to the remaining people we were with and me and James left the soggy lot to head back to the train station. Wet, cold and miserable, we had no intention of hanging around any longer than we had to.

Jumping on the football special train, we made the short journey back to Leicester. The whole thing proved to much for Potter though as he dozed off in the luggage rack after a few minutes.

So that was Peterborough away, a day that could have been the greatest away day ever turned into a miserable day that left us all feeling pretty depressed about things. With Millwall also winning later that day, it's really left things at a crucial point. Every result is now vital and every dropped point could be the difference between success and failure. We have got ourselves into this though after a string of dodgy results but we have to rectify this starting with Carlisle at home.... after of course another new ground in midweek. Im the famous Syston_Fox and i'm off to Wembley!