It’s never our year: memories of Posh in the FA Cup
“And that concludes another rubbish Cup draw for Peterborough United…”
The FA Cup draw is one of the most anticipated days in any football season. For a Posh fan, I’m not sure why, because it doesn’t tend to provide us with anything too positive.
As we head into another cup campaign, I decided to dust off the old memories and look back at a few FA Cup games from at least 20 years ago. Some were brilliant. Many were heartbreaking. Most were absolutely freezing.
Posh 4-0 Enfield – 2nd Round Replay – 17th December 1996
My first ever FA Cup game. One that probably wouldn't happen these days, what with Premier League players apparently being too exhausted for replays. But that's a whinge for another day.
Posh had already seen off Cheltenham Town in the first round before stumbling to a 1-1 draw in the original tie. Thankfully, there were no such problems in the replay. Goals from Charlery, Carruthers (twice) and Houghton secured a comfortable win and a trip to Plymouth Argyle in the third round.
At the time, I had absolutely no idea this would be the start of a lifelong FA Cup habit of preparing for glory and ending up with disappointment.
Posh 2-4 Wrexham – 4th Round – 4th February 1997
Having seen off Plymouth in the 3rd round, Wrexham stood between Posh and a tie with Barry Fry’s old club, Birmingham City.
I remember a few things from this game – it was bloody cold, Wrexham’s fans were proper loud, and Kevin Russell is crap at moonwalking.
Posh led twice, Charlery made it 1-0 before Carl Griffiths put us 2-1 ahead. It wasn’t enough though, as Wrexham came from behind to win 4-2.
Swansea City 1-4 Posh – 1st Round – 14th November 1997
Friday night, live on Sky Sports – that’s when I first realised we were massive.
Incidentally, Saturday 15th November was the date of my 11 Plus, but no old-fashioned exam was getting in the way of me watching Posh away in Europe for the first time.
Posh travelled to Vetch Field as underdogs but produced a performance for the ages. Steve Castle played like a man-possessed, scoring two goals sandwiched between efforts from Jimmy Quinn and Martin Carruthers as Posh ran out 4-1 winners. The prize was a home tie vs Dagenham in the next round. The magic of the Cup.
Posh 0-2 Walsall – 3rd Round – 13th January 1998
The game was due to take place 10 days earlier but was postponed, meaning both sides headed into this game knowing the winners would have the small matter of a game away at Manchester United.
This game taught me that football can also be horrible. I was certain we were going to win; I probably convinced myself we’d then pull off a huge giant-killing at Old Trafford, too.
The previous season we’d missed out on a big cup tie against one of Barry Fry’s old clubs, losing on a cold Tuesday night to a team beginning with W, who had loads of noisy fans. Surely history wouldn’t repeat itself.
History repeated itself.
A goal in each half saw Posh fall to a 2-0 defeat. Dear Lord, what a sad little life, Walsall. You ruined my night completely so you could have a trip to Old Trafford. Pathetic.
Brighton 3-0 Posh – 1st Round Replay – 9th November 1999
It’s due to their time playing at the Withdean that I think Brighton fully deserve everything they have now. Orton Longueville School had better facilities for their sports day than Brighton had at this place. It was grim.
Anyway, Posh had drawn the first game 1-1 and headed to the south coast for a replay.
For anyone who missed this game - and quite frankly, why wouldn’t you? - It was a bit like Bromley away this season, but with a 3-0 defeat. I don’t remember who scored, presumably 3 players in blue and white stripes, but it was grim.
What I do remember was the heating on the supporters coach on the way home making it smell and feel like you were sitting inside a tumble drier. That was also grim.
Oldham Athletic 0-1 Posh – 2nd Round Replay – 19th December 2000
As we headed to Boundary Park following a 1-1 draw in the first game, we knew a win would see Posh rewarded with an away tie vs then-holders Chelsea.
This time Posh did ensure there wouldn’t be cup heartbreak as a Richard Forsyth goal in the first half set Posh on their way to a 1-0 win.
Chelsea 5-0 Posh – 3rd Round – 6th January 2001
To appreciate how highly Chelsea rated Leon McKenzie, consider the defence they put out against him: two World Cup-winning centre-halves and a future England captain in John Terry.
They also happened to have Gianfranco Zola, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Gus Poyet and Dennis Wise. Decent.
Despite being absolutely battered for half an hour, Posh could’ve taken the lead. Instead, Andy Clarke passed to an offside McKenzie instead of just smashing the ball into the net.
This seemingly just annoyed Chelsea and they took the lead very shortly after through Zola. Hasselbaink added a second before half time.
The second half continued much the same way with 2 goals in 3 minutes from Gudjohnson and Poyet before Zola knocked in the fifth just before the end. We lost 5-0, but I don’t think anyone really cared all that much.
The Posh fans did themselves proud; asking the Chelsea fans if we should sing a song for them. To which they replied asking if they should score a goal for us. Top bants.
Darlington 2-2 Posh – 3rd Round – 15th January 2002
If ever a game sums up the FA Cup, it was this one. It was absolutely bonkers.
Darlington weren’t quite the team that Posh had beaten at Wembley a couple of years before, but this game was never going to be easy. It became a little harder when, due to the original fixture being postponed, both teams learnt the winner would host Newcastle United in the 4th round.
The away end at Feethams was on the side of the pitch and the linesman patrolling in front of the Posh fans soon realised he was not making many new friends.
Darlington were awarded a first-half penalty with the score still 0-0, Mark Tyler pulled off an incredible double-save, only for the plonker with the flag to order a retake because someone had apparently breathed in the box, or something. Having missed the first penalty, Darlo changed the taker and the replacement subsequently smashed the ball that far over the bar, it left the stadium.
This was surely the spark that got Posh going. Nope.
Shortly after the missed penalties, the home side found themselves ahead. They then doubled their lead just before the hour mark and that familiar feeling of missing out on a big cup game was creeping back in.
But 8 minutes later, David Farrell provided a bit of hope as he made it 2-1. The game then saw its third penalty as Leon McKenzie gave Jimmy Bullard the chance to equalise. Thankfully, he was more assured from the spot than our opponents and dragged Posh level.
4 goals shared, 3 penalties, a ball on the moon and a replay in a week’s time.
Posh 2-0 Darlington – 3rd Round Replay – 21st January 2002
Thankfully, the replay was a little bit less frenetic than the first game, but it wouldn’t be Posh in a big game without a bit of panic.
In a first half where Posh did everything but score, you couldn’t help but feel it was going to be one of those nights. Especially when another linesman got on the wrong side of the home fans and ruled out a Posh goal right on half time.
But Posh did make the breakthrough when Leon McKenzie opened the scoring after 52 minutes. It was a nervy second half as Posh struggled to put the game to bed. That was until Andy Clarke went around the goalkeeper in the last minute to send Posh through to play Ant and Dec’s heroes.
Posh 2-4 Newcastle United – 4th Round – 27th January 2002
Some would describe the state of the pitch that day as a ‘leveller’, in reality, it was like a battlefield.
Newcastle, as expected, controlled the first half and led 2-0 at the break.
But the second half was different. Posh were inspired.
An Andy O’Brien own goal on 52 minutes gave the home side some hope. David Farrell then demonstrated the technique he would later pass on to Mo Salah, picking the ball up on the right, cutting inside onto his left foot and sweeping the ball into the far corner.
Barry Fry was down the touchline. The game was level. Carnage.
Then came the moment. Everyone who was there will still remember.
The ball is clipped over the top. Neale Fenn cushions it on his chest. He’s into the box. He flicks it with the outside of his right foot. It’s definitely in. We’re going 3-2 up with 10 minutes left. It felt like the world stood still.
Then Shay Given sticks his left arm out and somehow gets enough on it to keep it out.
In that moment, I stopped thinking about whether I could blag two days off school to go to Newcastle, rather than settling for one
Sadly, my attendance at school remained unaffected. On 84 minutes, Newcastle were awarded a penalty for the harshest of handballs and Shearer made no mistake. A minute later, Aaron Hughes added a fourth and that was game over. I was gutted.
Nottingham Forest 1-0 Posh – 4th Round – 29th January 2005
It felt like the whole of Peterborough travelled to Nottingham for this tie and I still don’t quite know how we lost it.
Posh found themselves 1-0 behind early in the game with Marlon King scoring for the home side. For the remainder of the game, it felt like one-way traffic with Posh doing everything but score. Particularly in the second half.
I vividly remember Paul Gerrard using his go-go gadget arms to claw a Sagi Burton header away.
But the most vivid memory of that day is the disapproving look that Adi Mowles gave to me for singing along to Blue Moon. I’m sure he’ll still passionately remind everyone that “It’s a Man City song, for flip’s sake”.
(Adi did not use the word flip. But I bet you can guess what word he did say)
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