Posh suffered a 1-5 home defeat to Charlton on Saturday, but Posh commentator Bob Burrows feels that with a bit of minor adjustment Gary Johnson can turn their fortunes round.
08:30 Monday 15th November 2010
Peterborough Breakfast Show BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
PAUL STAINTON: Bob Burrows is here!
BOB BURROWS: Good morning Paul. Good morning everyone.
PS: The legend of Posh that is Bob Burrows, former announcer, and now friend to the stars, in the top box. I saw you scurrying about.
BB: I introduced you to David Seaman.
PS: You did.
BB: I did.
PS: I’ve met him before Bob.
BB: I’m sure you have. Likewise.
PS: It was a great day till we kicked off.
BB: Yes. But not to worry about that Paul. Not to worry. A bad first half, improved somewhat ..
PS: Bad!
BB: Yeah. Bad.
PS: Atrocious.
BB: Well .. some would describe it as ..
PS: They were lumping it. I don’t get the sense. Lumping the ball.
BB: No it wasn’t too good.
PS: Lumping it. (MAKES WHISTLING SOUND)
BB: Yup.. With two small forwards.
PS: Headed clear.
BB: It wasn’t right. And it wasn’t good. And I’m certain that Gary Johnson will be aware of that. And I think it did improve somewhat in the second half.
PS: I went upstairs. I’d had enough.
BB: Yeah. I saw you at the bar. It was, I believe, a little better, definitely, to say the least, in the second half. But hopefully, and I’m sure, that Gary Johnson will get it right. And I hope he gets to the end of the season. He’s a great old boy. And I just hope that they do give him time. We’ve played sixteen games. More than half of those games I think we’ve won. So it’s not all been bad. And I know we papered over the cracks earlier on in the season, in some of those victories, but in general, I think he’ll get it right. And what I would say to the Posh fans, and I know they think well Bob, you get in free, but turn up ..
PS: You work though Bob. You do work.
BB: I do. And I work very hard.
PS: You do mate, yeah.
BB: And Paul, what I will say, turn up. I know there’ll only be a small crowd. But I would try to encourage the Posh fans to get behind the Posh. We can beat Stockport County. And it won’t be an easy game at Bury but we can beat Bury as well at Gigg Lane.
PS: What’s wrong with the players though Bob?
BB: But Wednesday night Paul. I must mention Wednesday night.
PS: Go on go on.
BB: Posh FA Youth. The FA Youth Team are in the second round of the FA Cup. They’re at home to Sutton Coldfield on Wednesday evening. Turn up in your thousands to support the young lads at Peterborough, Peterborough Youth on Wednesday as well. You say to me what I think is wrong. I think what is wrong I think we definitely need a bit more experience in the side. I think we need a captain.
BB: For me Bob it looked like a big physical team came, knocked them all off the ball. They thought they were superstars. They thought they’d got all the time in the world. Grant McCann, I mean, he thinks he’s Pele. It’s very simple. A big team came, knocked them off the ball, and they didn’t fancy it.
BB: It’s happened before. Brighton weren’t the biggest team in the world, but they passed it around well. The movement off the ball as well was brilliant. But I think that we will get it right. I think there’s players there that can do it. I still think that we need a couple of experienced defenders in that team now. We’ve got two players that they’ve played in the back four. They’re on loan, so eventually they’re going to leave. I think we need some experience in the defence.
PS: In the midfield mate.
BB: Yeah. Well we need a captain, and I’ve definitely, I’ve gone off Grant McCann, I must admit, ponderously slow at times. I do not know, I’d question the penalty. I spoke to several lads behind that London Road end.
PS: My first reaction was no penalty. The ball went the way he was tackling. But I didn’t see it, so ..
BB: Well, my eyes are not as good as what they used to be, being a hundred and eleven, struggling now. But the fans that I spoke to behind that London Road goal said that he did reach out for it. In the end he toe-punted the ball away, made contact with the ball.
PS: It doesn’t really matter though does it? They were awful.
BB: We were outplayed, no doubt about it. But Paul, that’s on the negative side. What about the good things? Here, they talk about the City Council. They’ve put the old grit down, already, because it was going to be a bad night last night. I came through Queensgate this morning. Just two security officers in there, and the beautiful tones of the First Noel. It lifts a wilting spirit.
PS: Aaah. Beautiful.
BB: Yeah. That’s what it’s all about.
PS: And I’m not going to make people fed up this morning. We’ve tried to have a bit of fun with Posh. Obviously we went along in fancy dress at the weekend.
BB: I didn’t recognise you Paul.
PS: Adam Ant.
BB: Yeah. Who is he?
PS: Raised quite a bit of money for Children in Need. And it’s normally at this point that I would play the goals at the weekend, over a bit of Stone Roses. (MUSIC) Now my producer says I’ve got to do something with this.
BB: He’s standing firm.
PS: I refuse to play the goals. I don’t want to depress people. So I was looking for something worse than the goals from the weekend, and I found John Peach’s Park Ward newsletter.
BB: I receive it.
PS: So I’m going to read from that, rather than play the Posh goals. Is that alright?
BB: Well done. And good morning John if you’re listening.
PS: This is from John Peach’s Park Ward newsletter, in place of the Posh goals from the weekend, which the performance was awful. So here we go. ..
Reads out Christmas events and recycling collection days.
PS: Beautiful. That’s better than playing the goals, I think, isn’t it?
BB: I’m just lost for words.
PS: On tomorrow’s show, in the interests of fairness, we’ll be doing sections of the Nick Sandford Liberal Democrat newsletter.
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