The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
The biggest game of the manager’s life
Posh boss Darren Ferguson insists Sunday’s do or die League One fixture at Barnsley is the ‘biggest game of his life.’
It’s a big claim for a man who has overseen a League One play-off final win at Old Trafford – the ground where his father Sir Alex Ferguson enjoyed so many triumphs – in 2011 and who managed Posh to an unforgettable triumph in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final at Wembley three years later.
But this is how passionate Ferguson remains about a club he has steered to four promotions.
He just hopes his players feel the same way about a trip to Oakwell.
"It’s the biggest game of my life,” Ferguson insisted. “I’ve had massive games in my life, but right now, this is the biggest game of my life, and that’s how I’m treating it.
“I want the players to treat it that way as well. I’ve told them ’you’ve got to prepare for the biggest game of your lives and that we have to make sure we go and win.’
"Some of them haven’t been promoted before. This game gives them an opportunity to get in the play-offs and be promoted for the first time and it doesn’t get any bigger than that.
“I’ve tried to get that over to them, but I don’t know if they really get it, but I will
make sure they do before we go up to Barnsley on Saturday.”
Sunday could be Ferguson’s last game in charge of Posh (for now!).
He was brought back to the club in January with both he and chairman Darragh MacAnthony insisting it was a short-term deal to the end of the season.
Inevitable questions about Ferguson’s future have now been asked and the 51 year-old hasn’t ruled out a longer stay.
"As it stands, I’m here until
the end of the season,” Ferguson said. “But the chairman has said we will have a conversation when the season is finished.
"I’ve got my own thoughts on things, but they will stay private for now.”
The game on Sunday is the biggest Posh have faced on the final day of a regular Football League season since the traumatic relegation from the Championship in 2013.
Posh needed to get something from the last game of the season at Crystal Palace to complete a great escape
from relegation, but conceded twice in the final stages to lose 3-2.
Other final day dramas included a 2-2 draw from 2-0 down at Chesterfield in 1991 which clinched promotion from Division Four for a Posh team managed by Chris Turner.
And the following season Posh had a huge game against Brentford at London Road on the last day with Turner’s team chasing a Division Three play-off place and the Bees trying to win the title.
Brentford won 1-0, but both teams were happy as results elsewhere meant Posh finished sixth and then went on to win the play-offs.
Posh need to win the final game of the 1989-90 Division Four season to finish in the play-offs, but lost 2-1 at home to Southend.
The automatic promotions won by Posh under Ferguson in 2008, 2009 and 2021 were all clinched before the final day.
The play-off berths achieved in 2011 and 2014 were also secured with games to spare.