Celebrations at Chesterfield, desolation at Crystal Palace, a look back at last-game dramas involving Peterborough United

The League One fixture at Barnsley on Sunday is the biggest Posh have faced on the final day of a regular Football League season since the 2018-19 season.

Posh were in a similar position then as they are now as Darren Ferguson had returned to manage the club in January following the sacking of Steve Evans and they reached the final day needing to beat Burton at London Road, while hoping Grant McCann’s Doncaster Rovers slipped up at home to Coventry City, to finish in a play-off place.

Posh won 3-1, but Doncaster also won leaving Posh in seventh.

That disappointment was nothing compared to the traumatic relegation from the Championship at Selhurst Park six years earlier.

An incredible turnaround of form after losing their first seven matches of the season left Posh needing to win at Crystal Palace or match Barnsley’s result against Huddersfield to stay up with a team that looked a force at Championship level.

And with eight minutes to go Posh led 2-1 thanks to goals from Lee Tomlin and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing before Palace, who had been in shocking form, hit back to win 3-2, while Barnsley and Huddersfield played non-competitively in the final stages of their game to draw 2-2.

Posh went down with a competition record 54 points, while Palace went on to win the play-offs and reach the Premier League.

There was a much happier last day in Chesterfield on the final day of the 1990-91 Fourth Division season for a Posh side inspired by the arrival of Chris Turner as manager four months earlier.

Amazingly on that day there was just one point separating leaders Darlington from fifth-placed Hartlepool, so tension was high at several ground.s

A win at Saltergate was bound to take Posh up, a defeat would condemn them to another season in the basement division and when the home side shot into a 2-0 lead after just nine minutes, the game looked up much to the annoyance of the estimated 5,000 travelling fans in a total crowd of just over 8,000.

But Posh centre-half Dave Robinson headed home a Noel Luke corner for 2-1 on 52 minutes and then a long throw from Worrell Sterling 17 minutes from time was flicked on by George Berry and the ball was missed by numerous players in the six-yard before trickling into the corner of the Chesterfield net.

Would that be enough? Apparently so as word filtered through to the pitch that Blackpool, who had started the day in second place, were losing 2-0 at Walsall so Posh strolled through the final minutes before bedlam ensued on and off the pitch at the final whistle.

Legendary Posh skipper Mick Halsall would years later call it the ‘best day of his football life’ because it was the first promotion of his career, although he wouldn’t have to wait long for the next one.

The following season Posh, to the surprise of many, reached the final day of the 1991-92 season in fifth place, which was a play-off position. A draw would secure them post-season action, but a defeat could let Stockport and Bournemouth past.

The problem was Posh were hosting Brentford who needed to win to take the title, but although the Bees did win 1-0, Turner’s team finished sixth as Bournemouth were beaten at Hartlepool, leading to the unusual sight of both sets of fans in a near 15,000 crowd celebrating on the pitch at the end.

Of course Posh went to win those play-offs to secure back-to-back promotions and a place in the second tier of English football for the first time in the club’s history.

Other last-day dramas for Posh are few and far between. The 1960-61 and 1973-74 Fourth Division titles were secured with games to spare as were the automatic promotions under current boss Darren Ferguson in 2008, 2009 and 2021.

The play-off berths achieved in 2000, 2011 and 2014 were also secured with matches in hand.​ Posh relegations mercifully didn’t linger until the final day of a season either.

Posh needed to win the final game of the 1989-90 Division Four season to finish in the play-offs, but lost 2-1 at home to Southend, a win that guaranteed automatic promotion for the visitors.

And while Selhurst Park was traumatic for our fans, it must have been even worse for the supporters of Scarborough and Chester after last-day tanglings with Posh.

Posh had an outside chance of reaching the Division Three play-offs in May, 1999 when they visited Scarborough who needed points to stay in the Football League.

The match finished 1-1 which was bad for Posh, but looked good for Scarborough whose fans were celebrating on the pitch after the game when news came through of a last-gasp goal for Carlisle goalkeeper Jimmy Glass which instead condemned them to the drop.

The following season Posh had already qualified for the play-offs when they fielded a virtual reserve side at a Chester side battling against relegation from the Football League. A Ritchie Hanlon goal won the game for Posh and sent Chester down.