Is 'OK' good enough for Peterborough United?

Matt Mecham reflects on Peterborough United’s hard-fought draw and the glimmers of hope it brought after months without a point.

Photo Credit - Joe Dent / Peterborough United

While the performance showed signs of progress, he questions whether this new-look Posh, built on youthful promise but far from their free-scoring past can deliver more than mere survival. With the club’s player-trading model under strain and its reputation on the line, Matt asks: can 'OK' keep fans, scouts, and the future intact?

About Me: Matt Mecham

I moved to Peterborough two decades ago and started following Posh a decade ago. I work as a project manager at a software company.

As I witnessed Posh's hard-fought battle to secure their first league point in 119 days against a recently promoted League Two team with a heavily rotated squad, I couldn't help but feel a sense of hope. 

The team is gradually finding its rhythm, and signs of improvement are evident. 

With this trajectory, we can look forward to a season without the looming threat of relegation.

Abraham Odoh managed to beat a man occasionally and won a few corners. 

We have a keeper who knows when to put his laces through a ball instead of trying to play into trouble. 

TikTok sensation Kyrell Lisbie wants to run the ball into the corner, dragging a defender with him to make space before getting it airborne instead of walking into the six-yard box thick with a forest of legs.

George Nevett can make a three-point turn and carry the ball forward without being bullied so badly that if it were outside a nightclub, the police would be reviewing CCTV footage.

We did ok and narrowly avoided a pecking, thanks to Frith's dogged determination and Cian Hayes' flick on.

But is "ok" good enough?

The performance on Saturday, in the fading glow of summer, showed improvement in most players. 

Compared to the run since the last win at Crawley in the early days of spring, there is hope that we'll reach the heady heights of mid-table with a bit of good fortune.

But this is a far cry from the free-scoring entertainers that used to dominate teams and provide not only points, but thrills on the way to promotions and play-offs.

I dare any Posh fan to go back and watch any game from the 23/24 season (skip Oxford in the league) and compare it to our game against Bradford.

A shadow of our former selves

The fact is that we're a shadow of the club we used to be, and while improvement is welcome, we're a long way off challenging for promotion or getting fans out of their seats.

I can't blame the players for a lack of passion and fight. You cannot accuse this team of being lazy or unfocused. 

It's just that some are not good enough and others need more development, but are asked to play 40+ first-team games a season as we try to muffle the screaming alarm bells that have rung since Christmas.

A broken model?

The reason we're in this predicament is well documented. 

Our entire model is to buy young, promising players and sell them on at a profit to plug financial holes that our relatively small attendance causes. 

The model is based on using statistics and data to identify young talent from the lower leagues at bargain basement prices, much like a trader using a well-tested system to find stocks to invest in. 

However, in more recent times, this has failed us, either through overconfidence, or other clubs catching up with our scouting system with bigger budgets and picking the bones clean before we arrive. 

This has put us in a situation where we are struggling to maintain our competitive edge and financial stability.

The future’s…..

We will start next season with slick new branding designed to elevate the club and make it more marketable. 

It’s a noble goal, but will another season of mediocrity flirting with relegation damage our reputation as a club? 

We are currently seen as a club with the Midas touch in producing players who soar in higher leagues. 

If we have another season bouncing around the bottom of the table and become regular relegation battlers, will all the Premier League scouts who fill our seats to watch our latest batch of gems stop coming? 

Will fairweather fans who come for the adrenaline rush of a 4-3 win stay at home, dropping attendances back to the 7,000 mark of a few years ago?

Will agents stop sending players our way now the millionaire factory is malfunctioning?

Above all, our priority is to maintain a financially stable and well-managed club. 

Our reputation for player development serves as a reliable source of income, and we are committed to this.

Will another poor season damage that, and is being good enough, good enough to win over fans and keep those buyers coming back?