Official Statement from Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony.

'There is no doubt that the last four months have been the worst of my Posh career as Chairman after two brilliant years of unrivalled success. To be honest, I have probably never felt as low as I have recently as Owner of the club and can only set the record straight with our fans as I have always been pretty direct since I took over. So here it goes warts and all:

The Blueprint

When I bought the club a few years ago, I laid out a seven year plan for everybody at the club to follow and it involved the following targets inside the four walls of London Road.

Pay off all debts that the club was under at the time - Accomplished!

Hire a young Manager with ambition who could appreciate the blueprint I had designed for our future - Accomplished

Be more approachable for the fans and various Fans Groups and try and bring them together to support the club - Accomplished

Rebuild the squad and replace them with players who were young enough to enjoy the journey and be with us for a good 5-7 years - Halfway there.

Bring professionalism throughout the club - Getting there every year.

Work on our youth teams and make sure that we start bringing through our own youngsters into the first team within four years - Jury still out.

Back to back promotions to the Championship - Accomplished.

Put some trophies in the cabinet - Not yet.

Build a squad of multi million pound players - Accomplished having spent over £5 million on transfer fees over last two and half years.

Build our home attendances up to the 10,000 average within four years - Accomplished nearly and quicker than I thought thanks to the fans.

Keep it affordable for our fans to come and watch us - Accomplished.

Bring a more family atmosphere to our club - Accomplished but could be better.

Work with the local press in a more positive way - Accomplished.

Build us a new stadium within the seven years - Not yet.

Try and secure London Road for the club - Not yet but working on it.

Invest in the facillties at London Road - I have spent over a million on it since I have been here.

Increase our commercial department by over 300% within five years - We are 210% up since I took over.

Having International Players in our squad - Accomplished

Not selling our best players unless the manager wants it to happen - Accomplished

Create a positive vibe in and around our football club - Accomplished up until the summer just gone.

Make the club self sufficient off the field and debt free - Getting close all the time.

Not bankrupting the club trying to achieve all of the above - Accomplished.

Achieving the Impossible and reaching the top level for first time in our history - Four and half years left to do it.

This kind of gives everyone the idea of what I am and have been trying to achieve at Posh since I arrived. It has never been about land for me or making a fortune out of the football club, it was for me something more important, achieving the impossible and enjoying it by turning a less fashionable club into a success story and seeing it all the way through to the end.

When I bought the club nearly three years ago I was making a fortune and doing very well, but like everyone else out there, the recession has affected me and I have been working through it non-stop. But the one thing I have never stopped is my support for the club since day one and even over the last year with the business world suffering, I have still supported the club on and off the field through thick and thin.

This Season

It has been a horrible start so far on and off the field and we haven't performed to our potential anywhere throughout the club and we have hit a bump in the road because of it and are staring into the abyss as we speak. We can blame it on bad luck, poor decisions, Injuries, bad management, players not being up to it and of course people can blame me for not spending more money or tripling our wage bill etc but none of this is going to change the facts of where we are.

We can't change the past four months, but it doesn't mean we should ignore the previous 24 months either and what we have achieved as a club, we can only support one another and go out and try and get back to winning ways and get ourselves out of this hole as quick as possible. It doesn't have to be the end of the world because we have lost a lot of games and are bottom of the Championship, we can and will come back from this setback and that's what we will do.

I have seen the comments about our manager and feel after five games for people to make those comments and judgements is incredibly harsh without giving him the necessary support to get on and do things his way. The Gaffer is just as disappointed as everyone else with the lack of results in his first five games but of course needs 100% support from all of us with the job he has at present. To come into a club that has so many issues on the football side going on and start against Sheffield United and Middlesbrough is one hell of a baptism of fire but in time hopefully everybody will calm down and allow him the time to make a difference.

Once we can start playing every week with a settled back four and with players in their proper positions, the team can start winning matches and climbing the table. January will be important for the Gaffer so he can bring in the players he feels will help put a winning run together. Who goes and who comes in will be entirely down to the Manager and I have no doubt it will be a busy month for the club.

The only positive thing for us at present is our history over the last two seasons in the second half from January through to May and as it looks, we are going to need a hell of a run of wins to climb this table.

ME

I have always said that I only want what is best for this football club on and off the field and if that involved me selling and moving on, that's what I shall do if it's for the good of the club. I of course have seen recent comments from our fans about me and these include:

'We don't have the money to bring players in as we don't pay the wages etc '- We have spent over £2 million this season just in transfer fees and I didn't decide how it was spent, I just supported the previous and current Manager like I always do.

'We dont pay enough in wages etc' - Sorry guys but it's not like our players don't earn a good living and didn't sign those contracts they were given when we took a chance on them when many others didn't. I have said it before and I will say it again, we will not pay players £10 or £15k per week as it is football suicide and with three or four clubs on the verge of administration, this decision is justified. If we pulled in 15 - 20,000 for each home game and charged £32 per tickets, then this stance may change but I have never lied to our fans and promised this, I have been straight from the start about our football policy and how it works.

'I pick or influence who plays and who doesn't in our team' - As opinionated as I may be or as emotional as I may be, I can 100% confirm to our fans that I have never and will never interfere in how a manager does his job. Darren Ferguson will confirm this, Keith Alexander can confirm this and of course Mark Cooper would confirm this. A manager has to be allowed to live and die by his decisions and that is always the case with me. I will of course have final say on a player signing for the club once they are identified by the Management team as I have to pay for any deal that is finalised, but that is the same in most clubs and should be the case otherwise there would be a lot more clubs going out of business. Anyway, truth be told, I have been away on business for 75% of this year travelling away from my family and have probably spent no more than five days at the club outside of match days so that kind of takes away this impression of me being involved more then I should be.

'I do not have the money to bring us any further etc' - I am privileged to be a wealthy person and have worked hard to get here but like I said, the previous two years have been terrible for me as well as most, but at no time have I not supported this football club. I have spent £10 million pounds on this club over last two and half years and have never received a penny back or even put in for a petrol expense. Take a look around us and where we are and ask yourself, is there other Chairmen in the Football League that has committed as much as me without selling a star player to generate income. Bar the clubs who have come down from the Premier league with millions in parachute payments, most clubs run themselves by selling assets or on big home crowds paying twice as much as our fans for tickets. Maybe I have been naive in my approach and we should look at selling one key asset for millions so it can be reinvested into buying four or five key players.. The Cardiff's, Swansea´s and Burnley's of the worlds have operated this way, But I just felt it was wrong to sell the family jewells as a policy as it has happened prior not to good effect. I have always backed each manager as best I can and never pressurised them into selling to bring in etc but maybe that's why we have 39 players instead of 24.

At the last game I experienced something I felt would never happen at my club and that was hatred and aggression aimed straight at me in the Directors box after Swansea had scored their second goal. An irate fan screamed at me that I was an 'Irish B*****D and to **** off back to Ireland and take the team with me. I appreciate that we all get emotional if the team is losing, but would never expect this kind of abuse at my own ground and I am glad my wife did not attend the game. I had planned on bringing my four-year old son to the Watford game but have cancelled those plans now. I also would not expose my child to that kind of hatred and aggression and this has put me at a big low point as owner of the club.

I knew things would be a little negative for a while as this happens when you are losing and stuck at the bottom of your league, but after some great times at the club, it is a shame for people to throw the towel in after four months this season and become abusive and desert the team. Luckily the majority of our fans have been better than ever this season and will continue to support us and push us on, hopefully the team can start to repay them soon with some positive results. I think the new Gaffer and his team will do great things at the club and need to be supported as they set about doing this so let's give them a chance before we write them off.

As I have said, I only want what's best for the club and continue to support it day to day financially and as a fan myself, so if people want a new Chairman at the Posh, I will of course step down and do what's right for the club and its brilliant fans. I guess time will tell.'