Peterborough Preview

George Boyd returns to Broadhall Way again tomorrow night, this time though he’s a Championship player, a title Phil Wallace always said he was. What now seems like an annual fixture, Boyd’s Peterborough make the trip down the A1(M) to Stevenage to take on Graham Westley’s side. Posh were promoted for the second time in as many seasons last time around and Darren Ferguson is building something very special at London Road. The fixture down the years has always been a reasonably close encounter, although Boro have not come out on top on many occasions. Last season’s friendly at Broadhall Way saw the then League 1 side win comfortably by two goals to nil.

Peterborough are a progressive club that, under the ownership of Darren McAnthony, have propelled into the second tier of English football. For years Peterborough were just another one of those football league sides that just hover around the bottom 2 divisions and never really look like getting relegated or joining the big time. Since McAnthony has come in though, Peterborough have never looked back. Barry Fry moved upstairs and allowed Keith Alexander to come in. Together they decided to invest in the best young talent in the non-league and it’s worked a treat. Signings like Aaron McLean, Craig Mackail-Smith and George Boyd have excelled at London Road and are key players for Posh going into the 2009-2010 season in the Championship. That trend looks like continuing too as Peterborough have recently snapped up two of Crawley Town’s promising young players.

Tomorrow night’s fixture is without doubt Stevenage’s most difficult game of their pre-season campaign. Peterborough are also now the highest profile team that we’ll face this pre-season, when in previous years they have just been a division or two higher. I expect Graham Westley to put another strong side out to start with and then bring on his ‘fringe’ players as they game goes on. Westley said after the last game that he more or less knows his strongest side, but there will be players out there tomorrow night trying to force their way into the manager’s plans for the Southend game and then Tamworth a week later. Jon Ashton is one of them players that seems to have lost his place alongside Mark Roberts and he’ll need to be in fine form to dislodge Michael Bostwick from that centre back position.

As far as I know, Boro will be at full strength as there have been no injuries since the Millwall game, even though there were some very strong challenges in that game. Tomorrow night’s game will be another competitive one, although I think it will be less heated than the Millwall game. It really depends if Darren Murphy starts or not. Murphy has had a lively pre-season where he seems to have lost his temper on a number of occasions. He squared up to a player at Chelmsford and was in another altercation with a Millwall player on Saturday. That is one side that Murphy will need to sort out this season.

It should be a good game and I guarantee there will be goals of some kind. Peterborough should be too strong for Boro and I expect them to win the game comfortably. You might even see George Boyd score at Broadhall Way for a change?

Stevenage Squad

Ashley Bayes, Chris Day, Lawrie Wilson, Scott Laird, Ronnie Henry, Jon Ashton, Mark Roberts, Mark Albrighton, Eddie Odhiambo, Michael Bostwick, Stacy Long, Peter Vincenti, David Bridges, Darren Murphy, Andy Drury, Mitchell Cole, Joel Byrom, Yemi Odubade, Jerome Anderson, Lee Boylan, Charlie Griffin, Chris Beardsley

Prediction: Boro 1-3 Peterborough