Well, it’s Bye Bye Mr Barry Fry, as Don MacLean might have had it, as one of football’s more colourful characters makes his final appearance against the Saddlers on Saturday. Yes, Posh’s season is so bad that Barry Fry the Chairman has been forced to sack Barry Fry the Manager and he will stand down at the end of the season. I, for one, won’t miss him!

Walsall should be full of confidence for the game, following last week’s excellent win at Swindon and are likely to play the same side. Indeed, the only change is likely to be on the bench, with Merson himself replacing the suspended Mark Kinsella. There have been hints that Taiwo Atieno’s scoring performance for the reserves in the week might see him return, but the lone striker formation means that he would only do so on the bench ahead of Fryatt or Leitao and that doesn’t look likely. Emblen is facing a fitness test on his groin strain to see if he is in with a chance of making the bench, as his time with the club draw to an end, with him departing for New Zealand in the close season.

One man who will be looking forward to the game will be the Peterborough born Julian Joachim, whose run of form since he arrived on loan has contributed to the Saddlers pulling clear of the bottom four. It’s just a pity his stay will only be a short one, as Paul Merson made it clear this week that there is no way we could afford to make his move permanent.

It’s been a strange time all round for the Posh, as Fry has struggled to hold the team and the club together, with such incidents as former Saddler Clive Platt’s alleged assault on Tony Butler of Bristol City and his subsequent departure not helping matters much, and, equally, neither has the illness of player coach Andy Legg, who has a tumour in his neck and will be out for some time. After what seemed to be a reasonable start with them hovering above the relegation zone, they have slowly but surely sunk into the relegation zone and what seems like an inevitable descent into the basement division.

They have also now lost wing back Adam Newton for the rest of the season, but, having said all of that, they have had some decent away results recently, with draws at Hartlepool and Brentford and a win at Blackpool, but they are balanced by them having lost their last two home games, against Colchester and Huddersfield. They have, as ever, managed to turn up one or two decent youngsters who have performed reasonably well for them.

So, what about a prediction, then? Posh’s home record is:-

Pl 21, W 5, D 6, L 10, Points 21.

That’s second only to Stockport in the “worst record in Division 1” stakes. Their goal difference, though, is only minus 3, so you shouldn’t expect loads of goals. For me, this game has “score draw” written all over it.