JONSON’S NEW KING AT POSH
Striker fills Toney’s big boots
WHEN Ivan Toney joined Brentford last summer, Peterborough lost the top goalscorer in League One.
Luckily for them, they had a ready-made replacement in Jonson Clarke-Harris lined up.
With 23 goals in all competitions, Clarke-Harris is the latest savvy striker signing at London Road and is on course to do something even Toney couldn’t do – fire the Posh back to the Championship.
The pair were teammates for four days last summer, with Clarke-Harris signed in preparation for 26-goal Toney’s departure, and the succession plan has paid off handsomely with Peterborough firmly in the race for promotion.
Success
They had a rare Saturday off yesterday, with their game against Portsmouth moved to Tuesday because of the Papa John’s Trophy final, but they still lie second in League One.
Much of their success is down to Clarke-Harris, the £1.2m signing from Bristol Rovers who was brought in to do a seemingly impossible job.
“I’ve thrived off the pressure,” said the 26-year-old, who has just landed the League One Player of the Month award (see back page). “It is a good pressure to have and Toney’s success just goes to show the quality of strikers the club have been bringing in.
“To be fair, he is a different level. He proved he was too good for League One and he’s probably too good for the Championship too!
“I never had a goal target when I arrived. I knew I was going to score goals when I came to the club and it was never about how many, more the importance of the ones I was scoring.
“If you say to me now, we’ll take away all your goals but you’ll get promotion then I would happily accept that because it is a team game and we have all been grafting for many months.”
In truth, Clarke-Harris has been grafting for ten years to finally produce the best football of his career.
He turned heads in 2010 by becoming Coventry’s youngest ever player when he made his debut against Morecambe, aged just 16 years and 21 days, but it’s been a battle ever since.
In a nomadic career, he’s played for Southend, Bury, Oldham, Rotherham, MK Dons,
Doncaster, Coventry again and then Bristol Rovers before joining Peterborough, never really settling down.
However, it was at Rovers where his career changed and the goals began to flow.
Last season, Clarke-Harris netted 16 times before Covid curtailed the campaign and he’s taken it up a level in his second spell at Posh, his 21 in the league good enough to be joint-top scorer with Sunderland’s Charlie Wyke.
Quality
“I have higher quality players around me and that makes me work and train harder,” he said. “There is more quality coming into me and into the box that’s making me shine.
“I came back here because it’s just a perfect set-up. I wanted to be in the manager’s plans and I like what he’s trying to do. Hopefully this is our time.”
Like Dwight Gayle, Britt Assombalonga and Toney before him, Clarke-Harris’ Peterborough goals are turning heads.
Premier League side West Brom and Championship club Bournemouth were reportedly interested in January but he’s not ready to follow in those footsteps just yet.
“It is a nice feeling to be linked with clubs too, but it’s hearsay,” he added. “I have a contract at Peterborough and I want to respect that, I have not come here to just be here for one season.
“I have always planned to be here for a couple of years and see out my contract so I literally just want promotion and see where it takes us as a club.”
ICOUNT myself lucky to have played at Wembley three times in my career – and it’s partly why I have sympathy for those players turning out there this weekend. To not have fans at either of the Papa John’s Trophy finals is going to be weird. Those big occasions are special because of the fans.
The first time I played there was for Crystal Palace against Manchester United in the 1990 FA Cup final. One of my abiding memories is of walking out of the tunnel and seeing the 100,000 fans, getting that first glimpse of the crowd and that energy.
You watch it on the telly as a kid and it’s what you dream of, and then suddenly you are out there yourself.
Dream
I just wish we’d been able to hang on and win it! Wrighty (Ian Wright) comes on for us and gets two goals and we were 3-2 up in extra-time with six or seven minutes to go.
I remember looking at the clock and thinking ‘come on, we can do this’ but then Mark Hughes equalised and they beat us 1-0 in a replay.
It was a shame it didn’t finish on the day with penalties as replays favour the bigger sides and it was so flat.
At least I got a winner’s medal, and scored, the next year as we beat Everton 4-1 after extra-time in the Zenith Data Systems Cup final.
Later in 1991, I played there for England against the unified Germany and they beat us 1-0 – they were rather good! Again, I remember getting that first sight of the crowd and your nerves are flying all over the place.
If fans had been allowed at today’s final between Sunderland and Tranmere, there would have been a massive crowd. Although the supporters won’t be there, it will still be a big occasion and there’s going to be a massive audience of their fans watching at home.
I remember Palace boss Steve Coppell saying to us play the game and not the occasion. If you can’t leave that behind, the game can pass you by.
Confidence
Sunderland and Tranmere are both in great form and aiming for promotion in their respective divisions. Winning today could really bolster whoever comes out on top. It’s always wonderful to win a trophy for confidence and team spirit – it really is big.
Sunderland will be favourites as they are a league above, but I don’t think there’s too much of a difference between the divisions.
I really like Black Cats boss Lee Johnson. He’s managed nearly 400 games and it’s his time to manage a big club.
You may not have heard, but their fans have been buying virtual tickets for the game and have raised almost £140,000 for four north-east charities! Football means evto erything in the region and that just shows what their support base is like.
They might not be at the game, but they’ll be willing their team on in spirit, as will the Tranmere supporters. Let’s hope for a cracking contest.
● John Salako is an ambassador for My Club Group, who provide goods and services to help grassroots sport clubs survive, revive and thrive. www.myclubgroup.co.uk
SHEFFIELD Wednesday boss Darren Moore faces runaway league leaders Norwich at Hillsborough this afternoon – and reckons they are a perfect model for his Owls to aspire to.
While the Owls lie second bottom and in desperate need of points, Daniel Farke’s Canaries are on a roll and virtually certs to bounce straight back to the Premier League.
Heading into the weekend, Norwich had a ten-point lead at the top of the table on the back of a seven-match winning streak. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by former West Brom and Doncaster boss Moore that the Norfolk outfit kept faith with Farke and the bulk of their players after losing their top-flight status last term.
“Daniel’s done a great job there and I’ve got lot of respect and time for him,” said Moore, who took the reins at Hillsborough two weeks ago.
“They have had consistency and that’s been a large part of their success. They have been consistent with the squad that group of players have been together for about three seasons now. The message is clear, the dynamics of the team are clear, there is consistency throughout the foundations of the club.”
That Norwich stability on and off the pitch is clearly something Moore admires and in stark contrast to Wednesday, who have had four different managers this season – Garry Monk, Tony Pulis, Neil Thompson (caretaker) and now Moore.
Throw in a 12-point deduction for breaching EFL spending rules, later cut to six, and it’s clear that Wednesday and
Norwich are currently chalk and cheese.
On the pitch, though, Moore refutes any suggestion that today’s game is a ‘free-hit’ for his side given the gulf between the teams this season.
The 46-year-old said: “In the professional industry, no game is ever a free-hit. They are a good team, but if we can get our group cohesion back, that fluidity and consistency, we feel we are a good team. We have to continue to work and make up those small yards in all departments. We are focusing on ourselves.”
One benefit for Moore is that he’s had a full week to get his message across to his players. He was catapulted into games against Rotherham (lost 2-1 at home) and Reading (lost 3-0 away) in his first week in charge so hardly had time to draw breath. Those reverses made it six defeats on the trot in total.
“This week has been a good week to work with the players, look at the all-round structure of the team and get to know them,” he said. “You don’t get a quick fix overnight, even though we need one!
“You try to dripfeed information to the group without giving too much and making things too complicated. It takes time to implement ideas and there’s been lots to work on. The players have been absolutely superb.
“They have got the ability and it’s about applying it consistently. They have got to remember that they are good players. They are high elite professional footballers because over the course of their careers they have proven they have a consistent level.”
With Julian Borner suspended after his red card at Reading, it opens up a gap at the back. It could be filled by former Wigan defender Chey Dunkley.
“He’s had a stop-start season and the biggest thing is to get some more volume of training into him,” added Moore, who has ‘parked’ contract talks with the club’s out-of-contract players this summer to focus on the relegation fight. “That’s what he needed.”
And Moore has no doubts about Celtic-bound midfielder Liam Shaw’s commitment to the cause if he’s called upon in the remaining dozen games. The 19-year-old has signed a pre-contract to join the Scottish giants this summer.
“I knew about the situation when I arrived at the club but Liam is 100 per cent with this football club,” said Moore. “Every time he puts on a shirt, he’s committed to the cause. He’s a great human being and man.”
Goalkeeper Keiren Westwood and winger Andre Green are both back in training, though not expected to feature this afternoon, while midfielder Massimo Luongo is still out with a knee injury.