Turning Conference Straw into Championship Gold

Peterborough’s rousing comeback against the Albion last night will perhaps go some way to reassuring their fans that they have a future in the Championship although some of the more outlandish predictions that they could reach the play offs now look forlorn. Eye witness accounts suggest that their array of ex-non-league forwards have retained their potency: Craig Mackail-Smith (ex-Dagenham), Aaron McLean (ex-Grays) and George Boyd (ex-Stevenage) seem unbothered by the hike up in class and could follow in the footsteps of Barry Hayles and Geoff Horsfield in turning conference straw into football league gold.

It’s further back, however, that the Posh show signs of a soft underbelly. The goals against column doesn’t look good for their Birmingham City-derived defenders Gabriel Zakuani and Krystian Pearce and although Paul Coutts shows promise in midfield, Toumani Diagouraga looks raw at the level. Still, Posh look bright and breezy and it’s very welcome having them back.

Rob Langham (pen name: Lanterne Rouge) is co-founder of the defiantly non-partisan football league blog, The Two Unfortunates, a website that occasionally strays into covering issues of wider importance. He's 43 and lives in Oxford while retaining his boyhood support of Reading FC. He tweets as @twounfortunates and has written for a number of websites and publications including The Football Attic, Twisted Blood, In Bed with Maradona, A United View on Football and The Blizzard.

2 Comments on "Turning Conference Straw into Championship Gold"

  1. Jewels of Rumbled Dystopia says:

    Lovely stuff, Lloyd.

    More pressing, however, is surely the hugely offensive and quasi-racist Aviva ad:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tuVGST_1gE

    Also, what do you make of the widespread claim that the Championship is the new Premiership?

  2. Lloyd says:

    Much appreciated.

    It's the first time that I've heard the ad referred to as racist, but you've got a point. Most Argyle fans have taken to it (hell, we're even playing it over the PA system at the ground on match days), and the satire is smiling rather than snarling, but it is satire nonetheless. Personally, I think it's a bit of a giggle, and the fact that the vast majority of the Green Army are lapping it up only goes to show that we are, as the ad suggests, a little wet behind the ears.

    The league is certainly more competitive than the Prem and even the more attritional teams offer up some nice stuff. Wolves and Burnley have already shown that the gap maybe isn't as wide as it was a few years ago: financial mismanagement has put paid to that. The King is dead. Long live the King!

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