Edwin Overland offers his opinion on the Peterborough United v Scunthorpe game and the future of Jim Gannon. Broadcast at 08:25 on Wednesday 24th March 2010 on the Paul Stainton Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Peterborough.
(SAD MUSIC)
PS: Let’s just take a moment to reflect for all Posh fans. Because it’s normally at this point that we play the goals from last night. I refuse to play them. I refuse to play the goals from a four nil hammering by lowly Scunthorpe. Instead, it’s a chance for all Posh fans to .. just breathe. Take it all in your stride. Not to get too downhearted. Relax and enjoy Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Edwin Overland, good morning.
EO: No comment. I’ve off to buy ten packets of cigarettes, two pints of beer, fifteen gallons of petrol before the Budget, and then I’m going to Poland with Steve.
PS: To Cracow.
EO: To Cracow, or to crack off. Or crack on.
PS: Don’t forget, every hour from the highest tower of St Mary’s Church a heynal is played on the trumpet to the four quarters of the world. Youy’ll enjoy that.
EO: Don’t miss it.
PS: (laughter) Anyway, before we talk about Jim Gannon let’s talk about last night. Where the heck did that display come from?
EO: What was going on? Worst all year. Worst for many years. And I think we can safely say now, can’t we, that very slender thread by which Posh have been clinging on to Championship survival was finally cut once and for all. Good at Watford, lucky against Doncaster, very unlucky I thought against Forest, but last night, outplayed for long periods. Second best all through, lucky to escape with only a four nil reverse. It could have been seven or eight, and if you don’t want to play the goals this morning, play the Scunthorpe near-misses, because there were quite a few of those, as well.
PS: I’d rather not.
EO: No. OK.
PS: Against a team that are down there with them, they came up with them, they finished above them in League One. Have they given up?
EO: Yes. They get gates .. smaller attendances than Posh.
PS: Have the players given up?
EO: I don’t know. It’s the first time really, certainly under Gannon, that you would be able to level that accusation against them, but I don’t know whether they’ve given up. They just weren’t good enough, and they were just totally exposed time and time again at the back. But didn’t we half expect it? When you look at the team sheet, no Morgan, no Bennett, no McLean, no Boyd, no Batt, no Coutts, and Little, he pulled out in the first half, that obviously didn’t help, losing a right back who’s filling in at centre back. They were just pulled all over the place, quite honestly, by a team who knew what they were about, were very determined, can see light at the end of the tunnel. They can see a great possibility of themselves staying in the Championship, after they’d beaten Plymouth on Saturday, and they took full advantage of it. And they took full advantage of Posh turning in what was a woeful performance. Strange afterwards in the way that Jim Gannon, a bit like Ferguson had done odd times as well, he held his hand up at the finish, and he took the blame. He said he hadn’t selected the right formation, hadn’t prepared the players in the right sort of way. It was a one-off for Gannon, but I just felt so sorry for all the Posh supporters who made the trip there. A horrible night, rain, wind, and to see a performance like that, well it wasn’t a performance.
PS: As you said, you spoke to Gannon after the game. My feeling from listening to what he said to you is that he’s off.
PS: Yes Yes. I wouldn’t disagree with that. I would be absolutely amazed if the decision was that he was staying beyond the summer. I would be amazed.
PS: And that’s bad news isn’t it for Posh really ?
EO: Yes I think it is. You erase last night. For whatever reason, and why they would be so woeful, I don’t know. Scunthorpe were good. But Posh I think made them look good for long periods of the game. Erase the memory of last night and what we’ve seen from Gannon’s teams, whether they’ve contained the likes of Morgan or McLean, or whether they’ve been threadbare teams, when he’s been struggling when he’s had to play players out of position and so on. He’s shown that he is a football man, who thinks deeply, who gets the best out of players in whatever situation. Based on all of that, and all we’ve seen from him in the previous matches then I think he’s a man who could do an excellent job at Peterborough United in League Division One next year. If he goes, then Posh are going to go through it all again, for the third time in seeking a new manager.
PS: Edwin, thank you for that. Edwin Overland our Peterborough United reporter. Seen it all, been there, done it all, and he thinks Jim Gannon’s off. An official announcement expected on that some time today.