BFC 2-1 Peterborough United, Tuesday 17th February 2026

’Shepherd! DEFEND!’

We live to fight another day. Huddersfield have lost and we’re 8 points from a play-off place, 4 games in hand. Why can’t we just lay down and die, instead of giving false hope for another week? Where would we be if we hadn’t chucked away leads at home to Mansfield (2-0), Wimbledon (2-0) and Northampton (2-1)? And that’s just in the last couple of months. Chuck in losing at home to Port Vale (set adrift on memory bliss) and the worst Rovrum team in years and I’m at a loss to see how we’re still in with a minute chance. And with the kitchen fitter still in the team.

Yes, Conor addresses the defensive sitch by...dropping Roberts for O’Connell. Well, it’s a start. And look! A left footed player at left back. Unfortunately, it’s Gent, who is absolutely awful throughout. Did he really cost 200k? I’ve never seen him have a good game. And then there’s Shepherd. I’m tempted to regurgitate the old line about Odejayi after his winner against Chelsea, ‘he’s finally found his level...it’s the Premiership!’ Cos Shepherd was outstanding against Liverpoo, garbage against everybody else. Tonite, he’s left for dead by a forward before Goodman palms the resultant shot into the path of another Posh player. Nil-one, 21 mins in, and we’re on the rack.

O’Keeffe is also beaten down their left and the ball across is miskicked by their player, who’s lost his marker...the kitchen fitter. Goodman saves a one-on-one, while Posh find the Ponty End from a simple chance 10 yards out. Honestly, P’boro should have been out of sight by half-time.

In reply, we’ve had 2 chances. McGoldrick heads over from 6 yards out. Another inch taller and...actually, having seen it on TV, he should have done better. Great cross by O’Keeffe. And we equalize with a quality finish, as Luca cuts inside to curl one into the far corner. Or b) 2 Posh defenders force Luca inside onto the only foot he has. Appalling defending. Don’t Peterboro have scouts? (Maybe they do: ‘You can just let that Connell bloke have a shot, he never does anything.’)

Second half, the game is open, yet chances are at a premium. Neither side has their creative hat on, and Cleary settles it early with a fabulous right footed finish into the far corner. Otherwise, the only entertainment is seeing how bad O’Keeffe and Connell can be at deadballs. And they excel themselves with one, as they take a short one TOGETHER before the inevitable chip to the first defender. Do we still have that set-piece coach who was given all the glory early doors when the likes of DKD was scoring cheeky goals from corners? Cos our deadballs have been crap for about 3 months (and the rest). The best free kick delivery was by some bloke called ‘Banks’...so he wasn’t allowed to have another go.

Gent was dragged after the hour, for a right back (Watson) before the ‘closers’ were sent on, MdG and the GOAT for Phillips and Banks. And as much as I want MdG to do well, first thing he does is let a ball bounce in front of him and put himself in trouble.

Annoyingly, Leyton Orient concede 3 tonite, so although our goals against column has now equalled the previous most-againsters (Donny), we’ve been overtaken (undertaken?) by the eastenders. Come on Shepherd et al – pull yer fingers out!!!!

Onwards and upwards!

*** Connell. I only had to shout at him a couple of times.
** McGoldrick. Class. (Why’ve I got Pulp’s ‘Help the Aged’ earworming me right now?)
* O’Keeffe. Can’t defend (see the Posh chance 1st half) but gets up the field. I’m hard-pushed to say he set up 2 goals, but I think he had the last touch pre-shot.

Official MOTM: Connell

Londontykes’ MOTM: 1. McGoldrick 2. Connell 3. O’Keeffe

Despatches:
Stu came up from Retford. And what better break from your doctoral studies (as in ‘studying to be a doctor’) than a trip to Oakwell for daughter Isabelle? We treated ourselves to the Main Stand, cosier…and virtually empty. Where is everyone tonite? Well, Jonesy is skiing in America and Molly is not skiing in Wombwell, so there’s 2 ST-holders missing. Diane won’t drive from Newcastle in the dark (bless) while 1,000+ others probably have similar excuses. (‘The ice skating is on.’) At least Nozzer turned out. (Well, he turned out to the pub. Where did he disappear to afterwards?)

I thought the atmosphere, dead as it was, was a bit better than normal. Little Drummer Boy was tubthumping, and 50 or so of the Ponty joined in intermittently. Perhaps this is every game, I just can’t hear them above the East Stand chunter? Well, I said it was dead...

Drink du jour: Bini Chairman Miaow NEPA at Heaven and Ale. Beer of the season (so far).

Away: 512 (9,257).

The Damage:
c.£7 petrol
= c.£7

BFC 1-1 Peterborough United, Monday 21st April 2025

‘I wish the commentators would stop saying Barnsley ‘bursting forward’ as we amble slowly into the opposition half.’

It took A. Reed to sum it up best with the above quote from Lanzarote (why ruin your hols watching THIS?) If we attacked with any less gusto we’d be going backwards. But it’s ok, cos Jonesy’s seen some improvement. Arguably so. Humphreys has started looking like an attacker. Jalo has been given a run. So the draws and defeats aren’t quite as boring as they were earlier in the season, but the results are the same. That’s 1 win in 7 for Coach Conor, including home games against such luminaries as Cambridge, Exeter and Posh.

I’m more concerned at the other end. There’s holes all over the place in defence, especially if (when) we lose it in midfield. The midfield? What are they FOR? Tippy-tappying it in triangles, or rectangles, before playing a safe ball back to a defender. It’s no-risk football, which somehow we mess up and find ourselves in a 3 on 3 pickle. Again, and again, and again. It’s a good job this is a friendly and Posh are equally unarsed (is that a word? It is now!)

It didn’t help that I felt like a dog. A very sick dog. Coming up from London, I toyed with the idea of just going home. Perhaps if Sarah hadn’t suggested I give the game a miss, I’d have given the game a miss. ‘But I’ve paid for it.’ Besides, I might miss something. (Not a thought I had, half an hour in, as I stared through the gloom at Reds 0, Posh 1.) And you know what? I DID see something (positive) I’d have missed if I’d took the easy option. Russell’s equaliser, in first half injury time, is a thing of beauty. DKD rolls it backwards with his studs and Russell knows what he’s about to do 5 minutes before he does it, and directs a sumptuous curler into the far top corner from the apex of the penalty area.

Earlier, we’d gone one down to a quick break. Once again our defence seemed overran. Where IS everybody? Why’s there more of them than us? Still, it’s a smart finish from their guy, low into the far corner. Previously, Phillips had had a daisy cutter of his own tipped onto the post. There’s the difference right there. Goalkeepers. Some save them, ours don’t.

Ah, goalkeepers. Coach Conor has rung the changes today. Gauci is in for Falafel. An on-loan player in for a permanent player coming to the end of his contract. I can but deduce that we’re after Gauci and Falafel is on his way (though we could keep him on for about 100 quid/week, I suspect). MdG is back (woo hoo!) and McCarthy has been disappeared. Humphreys is out too, not even on the bench, but given recent performances, surely that’s an injury. And with a wealth of right back talent to call upon, he gives Lambrusco a trot out. Oh, and Cotter gets a start, albeit at left wing back. Cos that’s where you play right backs if you’re Barnsley FC.

We do create the odd chance. I think DKD cleared the bar with a couple of efforts caught on the bounce. But when our best dribbler is a 6 foot 4 midfielder of no pace whatsoever, you’re not going far. (Well, you might go far, but it’ll take you a while to get there.) I spent most of the second half wondering how much injury time there’d be, given that I was going bang on the 90 to get the train. (Spending another hour in the Barnsley drizzle would’ve broken me.) So, naturally, it was about the longest of the season, 10 minutes. Injuries to Jalo (who will rid me of this turbulent injury prone prodigy?) and, bizarrely, the linesman, meant I missed a good portion of the match, yet missed nowt. How does that work?

Hang on in there, the season will soon be done...

Onwards and upwards!

*** Russell. A couple of dribbles and a wonder finish.
** DKD. Below par, but, like Obi Wan Kenobi, ‘you are my only hope’.
* Phillips. Looked promising in fits and starts, a couple of shots.

Official MOTM: No idea. I heard it (I think) but I’ve no idea. Did I tell you I was sick? (It was Russell.)

Londontykes’ MOTM: 1. Russell 2. Earl 3= DKD / Roberts

Despatches:
I bumped into Darrell (BARNSLEY’S LOUDEST MAN) at half-time. ‘Connell is the gashest f***ing player I’ve seen in my whole f***ing life.’ It was great to hear such a sweary rant. Not simply cos I agreed with every word he said, but cos he evoked the ghost of Gerry, R.I.P. (‘Robin Ba*tard Van Der F**ing Lard’). One advantage of death is that you don’t have to watch this rubbish any longer. But what if you’re a believer? It must be the very definition of purgatory to be forced to look down and watch Barnsley FC forever.

Back to Connell, though. He took out their player 1st half so cynically he could write for Private Eye. Then the ref gives him a minute before deciding it’s a yellow. (Win-win, either way.) Jalo? The new Benson. Or the old Benson. I can’t remember who started this ‘let’s be forever injured and pick up our pay cheque’ thing 1st. Given their injury woes, I can’t decide if our physios should have their pay DOUBLED (so much work!) or HALVED (whatever they’re doing, it’s not working.) Carried off on a stretcher yesterday after an innocuous challenge...which the ref deemed as a foul BY Jalo. (I’ll leave that one for Jonesy, I’m under qualified to speak on officiating matters.)

Only two games to go...

Xg: 0.64 v 0.7. A classic.

Drink du jour: A flat white in Coffee Boy, feeling very, very sorry for myself.

Away: 653 (11,049). I clocked it at 2 minutes 37 seconds for the 1st round of ‘your support is f***ing s***.’ It is, mind. And for ’11,049’ try ‘7,049’, if that.

The Damage:
£9.50 train
= £9.50

...nearly there...

BFC 1-3 Peterborough United, Tuesday 15th August 2023

‘A bath just dilutes your filth.’

Do you ever worry about becoming right wing? Cos I do. Labour non-committal on refusing to reverse the Tories’ policy of capping child benefits at 2 kids? Fine by me. Why do my taxes have to subsidise some families popping out kids like there’s no tomorrow (which, by the way, there isn’t)? Then we discussed the relative merits of having a bath. These were innocent, pre-match times, a time before our second half capitulation to Peterborough United. A time I’d like to think of as amongst my happiest last night, as I swigged Clwb Tropica and stroked Wolfie*.

*No, not my pet name for Nozzer.

I found the first half an odd one, much like the Brentford-Spurs game I watched on Sunday. Not much quality, but plenty of opportunities to score. We had at least 4 efforts saved; Russell volleyed one down the throat of the keeper. Cadden drilled a low one through a crowd. Russell had a header on target. And, and…I forget the other one. But I’m 99.9% sure it didn’t involve either of our two hapless forwards, COW (Cole or Watters). Yet still we conceded the best chance of the half...

Russell’s in possession a few yards outside of our box. Was he fouled? Was he looking for it? Views differed, but it allowed the Posh player to thread a pinpoint throughball to the centre forward (the good one? Dunno. Surely Jonson Clarke-Harris buries these?) Anyway, he’s clean through and the keeper’s barely off his line. It’s a simple finish….which Roberts somehow turns around the post. Phew.

The second half was still finding its feet when we opened our account. Right wing back Cotter drills one across the box and the keeper fumbles it in. That must have been a cross? And does Watters get an assist for being the last Reds player to touch it before Cotter? Anyway, great, one nil and more to come. Only ‘more’ misses his train and I don’t think we troubled their keeper again. In the meantime, Roberts pulls off another worldy before somehow (somehow) a Posh player misses an open goal on the back stick, hitting the post from 3 yards. Now I KNOW we’re gonna win this game if that didn’t go in. We’re so confident, we can take our star forwards off just before the 70 minute mark. Within 8 minutes we are losing.

It was my fault. I’d been staring at the scoreboard, one nil, and thinking how once we (comfortably) see out this game, we’ll not have had too bad a start to the season. 2 wins, one draw (we’ll ignore losing at home to lower division opposition in the league cup). 7 pts from 3 games, a home game on Satdy to come. Despite needing two top draw saves and an unmissable miss, I allowed my mind to drift. This has happened hundreds of times over the years and normally I try to snap myself out of it. There is absolutely no point in thinking positively about Barnsley FC’s chances on the football field. Experience tells me that. So I wasn’t surprised in the least when Posh ran up the field and scored.

It started with our left wing back being our furthest man forward, on the high press. Nothing wrong with that. But even schoolboys understand the need to cover their position. We didn’t. As a 15 year old left back, I hated Dave Wayman playing left wing, cos if I ran up the wing with the ball, he’d just cluelessly run along beside me. Far better Phil, or Clemmy, or Geoff, who’d understand to cover. (We went through a lot of left wingers; Clemmy ended up in goal and we won the league minus Wayman, who’d finally been dropped.) So, yes, Cadden was in their half. They proceeded to put a ball down their right wing and there wasn’t a Reds player within 20 yards of their bloke. I think he then ran forward and coolly passed it to another bloke in the middle who stroked it home. (Forgive me if I get any of this wrong, I can’t watch the highlights as our broadband lack of width means Sarah won’t be able to work.)

Still, we have probably 20 minutes to go for a winner. Leading 1-0, we’d forgotten what it was to attack, so it should be an entertaining last quarter. 2 minutes later we are losing. I can’t remember anything about this goal beyond that it was bad, but not as bad as the other two. Then on 85 they completely kill the game. Was it Kitching being robbed in his own penalty area? Whatever, in a game of poorly conceded goals, this is the worst. Aside from one trademark run forward, Kitching played all night like a man not interested in a transfer. He was woeful.

By now the manager had given Phillips his first trot out of the season, but the players looked shellshocked. 3 goals conceded in a little over 10 minutes and now forced to listen to the crowing of the meagre away support. The one crumb of comfort I can think of is this: we lost at home to them last season too, and in neither game has Connell played. I miss Luca. Everybody does.

Onwards and upwards!

*** Cadden. Superb delivery into the box time and time again. Wasted on COW.
** Roberts. At 1 nil, he’d won us the game. Couldn’t do owt about the 3 goals eventually conceded.
* Cotter. Go on then. Him or Jordan Williams, but I’ll give it to Bazza for the goal.

Official MOTM: Cotter

Londontykes’ POTY: 1. Roberts 2. Cadden 3. Cotter

Despatches:
Max Watters. We’re 3 games into a new season and I’m already running out of adjectives to describe how poor he is. I know Chris says he’ll get at least 12, and he probably will – his contract is 3 years. Pre-match, Nozzer’s mate Mark* says Watters will bag at least 15 (fifteen) this season. I said they were innocent times. Later, Nozzer reminds me he’s the Brexit-supporting bloke I shared a car back from Shrewsbury c.2016. So he has form for not knowing anything.

*Nozzer will deny it’s his mate, but let’s just say the twice I’ve met him, it’s been in Nozzer’s company.

Meantime, I think someone said Cole ‘had run his blood to water’. By which I think they meant ‘never got near the ball’. That hattrick against Port Vale looks a lifetime away already. It’s been a week and a half. In defence, Williams looked assured, while the Polish bloke (name to be learnt at some point this season) headed balls away that were straight at his head. Russell and Kane (Russell Kane?) were strangely anonymous in midfield, while Styles looked busy early on before petering out. And Shaw and Dallas (the new SAD?), on up front, ran around like the eager new puppies that they are. All they need is an Andrex toilet roll wrapped around them and they’d be complete. Useless.

Drink du jour: Tiny Rebel Clwb Tropica in Heaven and Ale.

Away: 531. I’m sure the PA said that. Unbelievable. 300 at best.

The Damage:
c.£30 petrol
= c.£30

BFC 0-2 Peterborough United, Sunday 7th May 2023

‘See you in the final.’

Another weird game. With play-offs secured and Mads rested/not risked, our main job appeared to be to avoid injury and be ready and fit for the challenge ahead. And I can’t blame the players – at half-time, with us one down, I was perfectly happy to let Posh win if it knocked Derby County out of the play-offs. (Posh needed to win and Derby lose at Washday.) Perhaps other fans felt the same, as shedloads stayed in the concourse at half-time to have another beer. I always thought they stopped serving once the game was underway, but I found otherwise.

So many of our players were below par. Kane gave the ball away 4 times in the first half hour, simple passes too. Jordan Williams appeared the player most likely to set up a goal – for the opposition. Phillips was so anonymous, he didn’t even blaze his usual shot into the crowd. Kitching found himself in their half, chased back…and still missed the cross for their opener (Johnson Clarke-Harris). And why did Bobby Thomas run to the line instead of being in the mix for the cross? He’s had a poor month or so, capped off with losing his man for the 2nd, a near post flick on. Is this one of our favourite goals to concede? Anyway, a fine time to lose form. At least Cole has an excuse….he’s never a footballer, nevermind a centre forward. I forget which former player said on the radio the other day ‘you’re only as good as your forward line’. In which case, we can say goodbye to promotion (but maybe a day at Wembley will pay for Cole’s replacement).

What did we have in attack? A couple of headers flicked wide from corners (Kitching and Thomas), a stabbed effort in a scramble (Kitching) and a Tedic header which was a goal all the way till the keeper got across to save. Duff says Tedic cost Man City 3 mill. He’s not worth that, but he looks the best we have. Actual movement before the ball comes in, not a reactive chase after a ball that’s gone.

We were so out of kilter in the final third that Cadden was given MOTM for…what? Putting in 4 low balls to that near post to NO-ONE? I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt – he played for that, the team have practiced that (!) and someone (anyone) should have been there. The 4th, Cadden actively avoided an easy cutback to put it in near the apex of the 6 yard box, where absolutely nobody was running towards. Well, nobody in a red shirt.

Yet some of the build up play was quite good (hence how Cadden, a wingback with no speed, had 4 opportunities to put the ball in). It was just that that penultimate ball always went wrong, meaning we’d almost get to their box, but not quite. Let’s put it down to not needing a win. Or let’s see if the rot has set in (Ipswich, MK Dons, Posh).

Onwards and upwards!

*** Cotter. Right wing back (Jordan switching to centre half) he dazzled at times, and found himself out of position at times. But he was certainly our most exciting player going forward. Just don’t take on that 4th Posh player!
** Isted. Made a few good saves and couldn’t do much with the goals.
* Cadden. 4 crosses to exactly the right place. Lineker woulda bagged a hattrick today.

Official MOTM: Cadden

Londontykes’ MOTM: 1. Cotter 2. Cadden 3. Isted

Despatches:
Another excuse for the defeat: we lacked star centre half and supporters’ player of the year, Mads Andersen (another poll I voted for the loser). Hopefully he’s back for the play-offs. And Derby never did make it. Those Reds fans who bleat on and on and on about every refereeing decision which goes against the Super Reds ought to have a look at this one, Curtis Davies sent off and penalty awarded for a foul that was never in a hundred years. Hilarious. (This will come back to haunt me when we get done by Washday in the final under similar circs.)

Drink du jour: Blue Moon in the Old Number 7. It dawns on me that a post-match drink does little to curb my efforts to avoid drink driving. At least with 3pm kick-offs, it gives a couple of hours for the effect to dissipate.

Away: 1,932. Whilst it’s always nice to see the away end celebrating (!) it struck me that in 40 odd years of supporting the Super Reds, I’m sure I’ve seen the visitors to Oakwell celebrate far more on the final day of the season than us. Or is my mind playing tricks on me? Anyway, I met several Posh after the match and they were very magnanimous. One even admitted we should’ve had a penalty (and not the keeper’s challenge on Norwood).

Today’s take home: People say you need momentum going into the play-offs. Well, we have that! (Losing momentum.)

The Damage:
c. £30 petrol
= £30