Are Peterborough United working miracles just to compete against some huge clubs? Is it time for a reality check?

Of course there’s every chance this season will finish in disappointment for Posh.

If they did sneak into the play-offs they’d be the outsiders of four to win promotion back to the Championship and if that miracle happened they'd need another to just to avoid dropping straight back down again.

They are just facts of football life. There’s no disgrace in not going up this season. I can’t recall a League One competition with so many powerful clubs with such deep, talented squads, battling it out at the top.

Posh competed against Leicester City and Leeds United when finishing second in the glorious 2008-09 campaign, but modest MK Dons were third.

Brighton and Southampton were the top two in the 2010-11 season when Posh won the play-offs, but Sheffield Wednesday were re-building so offered little threat that season.

Wolves won League One in 2013-14, but little Leyton Orient were third. This season is nothing like the third tier campaigns that saw modest clubs with modest budgets MK Dons (2014-15) and Burton Albion (2015-16) promoted automatically.

No, this season Posh have been expected to fight it out with three clubs (Derby, Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich) capable of attracting regular 25k gates with all the advantages (referee pressure, atmospheric cauldrons) that can bring, plus two former Premier League clubs in Bolton and Barnsley, and Plymouth who, like the Trotters, have plundered the loan market effectively. All have great squad depth.

Even Wycombe Wanderers seem to have attracted quality players on wages that don’t reflect the size of the club’s fanbase.

None of the above guarantees anything, and Posh have finished in front far bigger clubs in the past, but they’ve never had to compete with so many in the same season.

Bolton had eight senior players missing when they thrashed Posh 5-0 away from home earlier this month, albeit a ‘genuinely bizarre scoreline’ as MacAnthony suggested during the last edition of his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast.

Even with so many players absent they had a subs bench rich in talent compared the one sitting a few yards away.

Some promotion contenders strengthened in January with Ipswich splashing out two £1 million fees with no discernable improvement in results.

Clearly it’s not as simple as chucking money at a problem. Other factors have to align like tactics (playing players in their best positions helps) and the ability to cope with promotion pressure and expectation, something that afflicts Posh even with their relatively small resources.

It’s actually a compliment to recent club history, since the arrival of Darragh MacAnthony as owner in 2006, that Posh are always priced up amongst the favourites to win the title whenever they are in League One.

A reminder Posh have not played in the bottom division since the 2008, a run of 15 years. Pre-MacAnthony the longest absence from the fourth tier was seven years in the 1960s.

Of course MacAnthony adds to the expectation most seasons by giving each campaign a headline-grabbing subtitle. It’s brilliant when it comes off like the ‘Vengeance Tour’ and not so good when it fails.

This season was supposed to be the ‘Greatest Show on Turf.’

But then again what’s he supposed to say pre-season? ‘We’re aiming for mid-table’ or ‘I doubt we will win promotion’ might turn out to be more accurate, but it wouldn’t play well with the fanbase, particularly those who sit miserably on their hands when the team is winning before pouncing with glee and tweeting aggressively, and often obscenely, within five minutes of a defeat.

MacAnthony might have reconsidered such a positive declaration last summer if he’d known the problems hurtling around the corner.

There has been an ownership fallout, one still unsolved, an FA charge following an chief executive appointment, also unresolved, the construction of a new stadium has stalled and all at a time when all Football League clubs were struggling financially post-Covid.

MacAnthony and co-owner Dr Jason Neale, have been working hard behind the scenes to reduce club debt and credit to them if the next accounts really do show a profit, but financial fairplay will always limit Posh to scouring lower divisions, and even non-league, to find gems capable of launching a promotion bid. That’s not to say it’s an impossible dream as Posh have proved before and recently.

‘Holy Trinities’ are not that easy to come by sadly, although Kwame Poku and Ephron Mason-Clark offer hope for the immediate future once they add consistency to their undoubted talent.

Of course Posh have made mistakes.

A lack of imagination in managerial choices is one common complaint, although, with all going on behind the scenes, turning to a refreshed and available proven promotion-winner rather than add to stress by slogging through an interview and hiring process made plenty of sense, and not all signings have worked.

That’s an inevitability of the business. For every Jack Taylor and Mason-Clark there is a Joel Randall and David Ajiboye, although the latter has time to come good.

Posh will regroup in the summer, but with the expectation rookies and youngsters already at the club will underpin the squad, it might be sensible to lower expections a tad.

Promotions for Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich and Derby would help, although big clubs will still remain. Portsmouth for one will surely get their act together one day.