Peterborough away. One of the best away days out on the calendar owing to it being just about the right distance from Brighton, the best terrace left in the country (which we will apparently be on for the last time) and the fact that we always seem to do well at London Road, more often than not handing out a footballing lesson. Even with what was largely considered to be the worse team in Brighton and Hove Albion and possibly Football League history, in 1997 we managed to win there, prompting the song that used to reverberate around the Moyes End of “Cheer up Barry Fry”. Last seasons 3-0 win over a side pushing all the way for promotion was easily the highlight of the campaign, although anybody who is expecting a repeat of that should bear in mind that it’s three goals in our last nine away league games. And we probably had more shots during the Nightmare on London Road than we’ve managed away from home in the entirety of the current campaign so far.

Who are Peterborough?
The Posh mainly spent the last decade floating around the bottom two divisions of the football league which prompted one of the best footballing documentaries ever made. Ok, it wasn’t Leyton Orient’s “Club for a Fiver” when the whole country had the pleasure of watching manager John Sitton suffer a complete meltdown, but it came close as Ron Atkinson rocked up at London Road in order to help manager Steve Bleasdeale in “Big Ron Football Manager” (conveniently, we couldn’t find a Peterborough song/be bothered to look for one so the first episode of Big Ron is takings it’s place). The result was Bleasdeale quitting, pouring scorn and embarassment on this once proud club. The other result was bringing Peterborough to the attention of Darragh MacAnthony, who purchased the club, piled in the money and delivered on what appeared at the time a somewhat sensationalist promise of back-to-back promotions from League Two to the Championship. After falling out with Darren Fergusson it appeared for a while as though the Irish businessman was losing the plot as relegation followed, but the two reconciled their differences with the result being an instant return to the Championship where, despite being a lot of peoples comfortable favourites for relegation, they are holding their own. Even if some team did nab their top scorer

Their history with Brighton?
We’ve played each other a number of times since the 1990′s and as already noted, have turned London Road into a bit of a fortress on our visits. The away end is always packed and we always seem to get a result, with Barry Fry in particular having a pretty good relationship with the Brighton faithful. More of the same Saturday wouldn’t go amiss.

Last time we met?
Brighton went to the top of the early Championship table with a 2-0 victory over Peterborough with Craig Noone and a stunning free kick from debutant Ryan Harley doing the damage. Nobody likes a bragger but sod it, we’ll mention that 3-0 win at London Road last season again. The Posh last defeated us in the 2008-2009 season at Withdean when a typically woeful defensive performance combined with their frightening amount of fire power saw a 4-2 victory for the visitors. Our last defeat there came on the opening day of the 1995-1996 season with a 2-1 loss.

Who has played for both?
Craig Mackail-Smith was a goal machine for Peterborough and can expect a warm welcome on his return. While he has struggled to hit the net since his big money move, he hasn’t enjoyed the glut of chances that the Posh used to create for him but nobody would be happier to see him notch his first goal since the end of November than the Albion fans – even if the man with the black eye will no doubt not celebrate it. Another forward to have represented both was Zeke Rowe who looked to have bags of potential during an impressive loan spell in the 1995-1996 vintage Albion side, netting three times in nine games. He moved to Peterborough afterweards and hit three in 30.

Who to look out for?
Captain George Boyd was the man responsible for creating most of CMS’ goals – a Paul Watson to his Bobby Zamora if you like. He’s been linked with a move away from London Road in the transfer window with a number of Albion fans claiming that signing him would be the best way to get more out of our record signing. Darren Fergusson is well connected thanks to the sperm that produced him and that has seen Sir Alex send Ryan Tunnicliffe on-loan to Peterborough this season and he has impressed in midfield while striker Paul Taylor has six goals in 17 appearances

Prediction?
If we’re ever going to break this horrendous goals for record away, it will happen at Peterborough. They’ve conceded 20 times in 12 games at home this season continuing their cavalier record of scoring for fun and conceding for fun. An entertaining games should be on the card though which will be a nice treat given the dirge served up at Coventry, Reading and Middlesbrough, so we’ll go for a 2-2 draw.