A season in five moments: From promotion dreams to near-relegation

Peterborough United Chairman Darragh MacAnthony spoke confidently on the pre-season UpThePoshcast episode, mapping out what 2025/26 was going to look like.

The aims for the season:

• A promotion run.

• EFL Trophy defence.

• 100 goals.

The same ones he sets every year in League One.

Darragh pinned his hopes on last season’s fringe players: “Gustav and Brad combined; 35 goals between them would be good.”

Hayes, Odoh and Conn-Clarke, the year-two cohort that fans had written off, would be "more than 30% better."

Brandon Khela was "probably the most comfortable" half a million pounds Darragh had ever spent.

Kevin Russell was in to fix the set-piece nightmare that had plagued them.

Everything was in place.

Let’s take a look at the disaster that unfolded and the key moments that defined the season.

Photo Credit : Joe Dent / Peterborough United

1. The Suicide Squad

The alarm bells were ringing towards the end of pre-season when an unfit Posh drew with King’s Lynn Town and struggled to break down Boston United.

A narrow victory against MK Dons was marred by an injury to our new keeper, Alex Bass.

Our starting XI against Cardiff on the opening day was, as local journalist Alan Swann stated, “like a suicide note.”

With Bass out, transfer-listed Nicholas Bilokapic was recalled despite failing to nail down the No. 1 spot previously and being prone to gifting opposition goals.

In front of him was David Okagbue, a new signing from Walsall paired with Oscar Wallin, who would have such a terrible time that he retired from professional football months later.

Bradley Ihionvien, who failed to score a single League One goal in 2024/2025, was inexplicably handed the No. 9 shirt.

Posh lost 1-2.

Then 0-2 at home to Luton.

Then 0-2 away at Wigan.

Then 0-1 at home to Barnsley.

Our haul after the first six games was a single point.

Faith was placed in Odoh, Hayes, and Conn-Clarke to be "different in year two,” according to Darragh.

They weren't.

When panic set in on deadline day, it was Leonard, Morgan, O'Connor and Mendy who arrived.

Without them, Posh might have been planning trips to Crewe and Gillingham this season.

Looking back, it is crazy that Posh’s leadership expected a team of transfer-listed players, goalless strikers and last season’s strugglers to make a credible run for promotion.

What were they thinking?

2. October 25th: The end of a legend

Darren Ferguson struggled to get his team firing, and calls for his dismissal grew louder.

With just 10 points from 13 games, the loss to Blackpool was the tipping point. 

Darragh MacAnthony issued the statement confirming Darren Ferguson had been sacked. 

"The greatest in the club's history," he wrote. "I am devastated he is no longer our manager."

Darragh, who had opened the season describing the squad as capable of "a promotion tilt”, had by now acknowledged a "shitty disaster start".

3. November to New Year: The love affair

Williams arrived on October 29th, and within ten days, Posh had thrashed AFC Wimbledon 5-0.

Within six weeks, they'd beaten Stockport, Reading, Northampton, Port Vale and Leyton Orient.

A 2-0 win at Rotherham on New Year's Day lifted them to 11th, six points off the playoff places.

Fans were delirious and started dreaming of promotion.

DMac described working with Williams as "like a new love affair”, later confirmed via salacious drunk texting.

The stats backed it: possession up 18%, averaging 21 shots per game, Kyrell Lisbie involved in almost every goal, and Harry Leonard establishing himself as the best striker in the division.

Even after the sobering 5-2 defeat at Lincoln on January 4th, the mood remained bullish. "I know we're a couple of pieces away from being a team that can fight for automatic promotion next year," DMac said.

The word next was doing a lot of work. As we headed towards a new year, nobody was giving it much attention.

4. January's silence: The decision that cost the season

The winter window closed, and Posh had not made a single signing.

Luke Williams publicly said he wanted to work with what he had, but I bet he had at least 2 to 3 players on his wishlist to bolster the squad.

The gaps were visible to anyone watching.

• No cover for Leonard.

• One trusted wide option in Lisbie.

• A midfield that was thin behind Collins and Garbett.

Then the injuries hit.

Key players Mills, Okagbue, O'Connor, Woods, Garbett, Leonard and Lees all ended up out of action.

By March, academy players recalled from National League South loans were leading the line.

The gap between genuine promotion-chasing teams and Peterborough was laid bare at Bradford away on Valentine’s Day.

”26 shots against us and we didn't have a shot, I don't think that's happened before.” Darragh reflected on the next episode of The Hard Truth, opposite Bradford fan Philip Ideson.

Although fans got a temporary reprieve with the 5-0 thrashing of relegation-fodder Rotherham on March 17th, Posh didn’t win another game.

"We are hanging on," DMac finally admitted after a nine game winless streak saw out the campaign.

The season that had briefly pointed at the playoffs had collapsed into a relegation dogfight.

5. Mansfield, April 28th: The pain finally ends

We finally secured our League One status with a miserable 0-0 draw against Mansfield Town at home, with Posh fans singing “we are staying up”.

Luke Williams, in his post-match interview, said: "I'm really pleased. I think it's our first nil-nil since I've been at the club. It's not really the way we set out to play a game, but it was what was required. I'm very happy that we've secured our League One status tonight.”

No one would begrudge him that.

But fans had endured one of the the worst season in decades.

This is a club that entered the season talking about 100 goals and a promotion challenge.

That went to Wembley two years running.

The season ended with 64 goals, 18th place again, and a celebrated goalless draw.

Posh survived because Exeter, Leyton Orient and Wimbledon were worse between November and December, not because Posh were good enough in the run-in.

We gained just nine points from the last 15 games.

The final day brought a 3-1 home defeat to Doncaster, with our defence torn apart by a 40-year-old striker. We had all but given up.

Archie Collins, released at season's end, was not even in the squad for his last goodbye.

The honest verdict

There were bright spots worth naming.

Harry Leonard with 17 league goals was excellent throughout.

Kyrell Lisbie went from non-league to one of the division's most effective wide players in a single season.

Alex Bass posted a 72% save rate and 10 clean sheets.

And Luke Williams, seven months in with no pre-season and an inherited mess, showed more than enough to be given another chance.

But 2025/26 was a season shaped by recruitment decisions, only to be slowly undone by a reluctance to acknowledge what those decisions had produced.

The fact that DMac ended the season ordering a full audit of injury and conditioning data going back multiple years suggests even he knows this one needs a proper reckoning.

The Miami summit this month, with Williams, MacAnthony and Barry Fry planning the 2026/27 squad, carries more weight than any summer meeting in recent memory.

The bones of something good are there.

The question is whether the decisions made in the next few months are brave enough to build on them.

We need proven league quality. We cannot survive on what’s left after two starting loan players are returned; Archie is sold, with at least one more likely to follow.

We cannot continue to pin hopes on hopeless players with nothing but magical thinking.

Another poor season will cement our new reality as a bottom-half club. The halcyon days of Wembley wins and play-offs campaigns will become memories from another era.

Darragh called me out on his podcast for saying it, but I’ll say it again: we need our chairman to be grounded and realistic. No one is in the mood to be told we’re a top 6 side while watching terrible football in the relegation zone.

It’s going to be the toughest League One in years, and Posh fans are low on optimism.