Darragh MacAnthony has issued a New Year's message to the club's supporters.
Dear Posh Fans,
I wanted to take this opportunity to pass my thoughts on to you all and thank you for your loyalty and support in what has indeed been a patchy period for the football club form wise during 2014.
The year saw us return to Wembley and take home some silverware, it saw us finish 6th and exit the play-offs far earlier than we anticipated. It then saw us having to undergo a minor rebuild during the summer with many players departing and the arrival of Alnwick, Smith, Burgess, Maddison, Oztumer, Taylor, Beautyman & Luke James to name but a few.
Patience was a key word used by me in the summer as we went about rebuilding a squad that we felt would in time grow into an exciting young unit full of pace, endeavour and goals that would, as time went by, become a Posh side that would bring us a prolonged period of success.
2014 saw us top the league early on, but at the same time it has seen us suffer a catastrophic run of injuries/illnesses to 90% of our playing squad from August through to December, only allowing us to play the same eleven for one and a half games thus far in the current campaign, which though not an excuse for our unacceptable run of form, it has not helped our cause nor our aspirations to mount a serious promotion challenge.
2014 has seen a new stand open at London Road, record breaking commercial deals in place thanks to new sponsorship deals and has seen a transformation in our training facilities, which are now on a par with many top Championship club's.
2014 has seen our youth set up under Dave Robertson go from strength to strength, which will see many more youth team players progress through into the first team squad. 2014 has also seen a serious amount of discontent amongst our own supporters, has seen a change in attitude towards our football management team from the terraces and many calls for a change. The harsh reality and facts in football is that you very often are only as good as your last few results and history never really allows you to rest on your laurels. The other harsh reality is that regardless of injuries and certain circumstances, the management team will be the first to admit that results recently and overall in 2014 start to finish have been way under the standard expected by myself and the supporters not to mention the standard of football at times particularly at home has indeed fallen way short of what we all come to expect.
Statistics show that we finished 2014 with a losing percentage as opposed to a winning percentage and that doesn’t and never will sit well with me. The players will also be the first to admit the past year and indeed the last 10 games haven’t been their finest as they set their own standards and our Captain Jack Payne and his team mates now have a new year and 23 league games to put many wrongs right on the football field.
Our management team are a hard working bunch who only want what's best for the football club and our squad of young players are no different and nobody could question their loyalty, work ethic or commitment. Changing the manager of the football club is actually a really easy decision to make as shown by the majority of clubs who do it, but contrary to what some supporters think, financial aspect of it never comes into play for me as I must always do what's best for the long term health of the football club. This isn’t some form of vote of confidence in Darren Ferguson from me, he gets consistently all the support he needs from me on a daily basis, this is your Chairman giving his thoughts on 2014 as a whole.
I met with the management team and playing squad today (New Years Eve) and very simply reiterated what I and our supporters want to see in 2015; which is a healthy energetic, high pressing style of football with plenty of goals that sees a consistent run of results that give us a chance to win promotion from League 1 this season. They all appreciate that January is now a key month results wise and that by the end of January we as a club need to be back in the promotion race one way or another and putting a smile back on the faces of our wonderful supporters.
I will be taking the squad and the management team to Marbella this Sunday for five days for a training camp where they can train intensively in good weather as opposed to here in the UK, get their mindsets right and come back hopefully fully invigorated for the promotion challenge our club seeks over the final 23 games of the season.
I hope to see thousands of you at the ABAX Stadium for our next home fixture, but for now let me take this opportunity to wish you all a prosperous, healthy and successful New Year in 2015. Thank you for the continued support as it's what drives me on every day to better our football club.
Keep It Posh
D