Promotion party for the Fantastic Fours is not far away!
There is a chance this Saturday that we may see the first promotion of the season for City of Peterborough.
With the Men’s 4th team starting the weekend eight points clear of their nearest rivals, Cambridge South, they need only two wins from their four remaining fixtures in Division 3NW. But with South having to play fourth placed Long Sutton, there is a reasonable chance that they may drop points meaning a single win would be enough for the Fantastic Fours.
This promotion may not be the one that the whole club would have wished for. It is however an important promotion as it bridges that gap between the top and middle teams in the club. Getting the 4th team up into Division 2 will mean that they are much closer to the 2nds and the 3rds who both look to have safely got through a season in Prem B.
Neil Lake’s 4th team entertains bottom team Cambridge South 2nds at the Thomas Deacon Academy in an 11.30am pushback. That looks a certain win for them, but by the time they are back to Bretton Gate, and are sat down for their sausages, they may get the news that they have got their well deserved promotion!
The Men’s 1st XI are back at home again this week, after a series of disappointing results in the last few weeks. They have only taken a single point from the last three games, poor form but even more upsetting when knowing that getting three wins (as they would have expected) in the same period would have seen them right back in the promotion race with just four fixtures remaining.
This weeks’ visitors are Norwich City, a team in the bottom two who will be scrapping to survive. The pushback is the usual 1pm start at Bretton Gate, where City have been unbeaten all season.
The Men’s 2nd XI are also at home too, in the game directly after the 1s.
That’s a 2.30pm pushback against promotion chasing Felixstowe, a team that contains ex-City midfield veteran James “Sharpy” Sharpe (left). Felixstowe have been rapidly progressing up the East Leagues, with successive promotions in the last few years. Unfortunately, Danny Needham is suspended, but Andy Cave’s team have been extremely solid in this second half of the season and will fancy getting a positive result.
The Ladies 1st team are on the road this week with another trip to Norfolk, this time to Dereham. On paper, they still need another three wins from their final four fixtures to guarantee staying up, but if one of those wins is against ninth place St Ives in two weeks time, it is only two wins needed.
Manager Lawrie Sullivan will be happy that the City Ladies have three teams below them to play in their last three games of the season, but will want to get a result on Saturday, or else that fixture against St Ives could potentially end up being a winner takes all relegation decider.
The remaining fixtures are:
- Men’s 8th XI v City of Peterborough Vets (10am at Bretton Gate)
- Men’s 6th XI v Spalding 2nds (10am at Thomas Deacon Academy)
- Ladies 3rd XI v Wisbech Town 2nds (11.30am at Bretton Gate)
- Men’s 5th XI v St Ives 2nds (12.30pm, away)
- Men’s 3rd XI v Bishops Stortford 1sts (1.30pm, away)
- Men’s 7th XI v St Neots 2nds (1.30pm, away)
- Men’s 9th XI v Horncastle 2nds (2pm, away)
- Ladies 2nd XI v Long Sutton 1sts (4pm at Bretton Gate)
