Echoes of last season as a Peterborough United manager was a 'dead man walking' when he turned up for work on Saturday

The man was no fool. He would have known his bizarre utterings straight after the dramatic, but rather fortunate, Carabao Cup win over Barnsley hadn’t landed well.

Williams had appeared to suggest he picked a team for that match in a formation he didn’t want to deploy, and said as much soon after the final whistle in an interview with the club’s in-house media. Obvious follow-up questions were left unasked. Most pertinently, what are you talking about? It was a strange comment which provoked reactions about a ‘dead man walking’ and a manager ‘trying to engineer a departure,’ although the former was probably more accurate than the latter.

His other post-match interview with BBC Radio Cambs – PT staff are hampered by print deadlines on a Tuesday night – was equally baffling and also drew much criticism as answers to relevant and innocent questions became shorter and shorter to the point of rudeness, not something you’d usually associate with a naturally polite and respectful man. When it was mentioned Posh had reached the fourth round of the EFL Cup for the first time since 2009 he simply replied: ‘I wasn’t here then.’

We media men do ask daft, loaded questions sometimes, but this wasn’t the case here. I put it down to a man under pressure, fed up with questions that needed asking, and irritated by indisputable facts. There was only one way to shut down the ‘two wins in 20-odd League One games’ narrative and getting surly with the press wasn’t it.

What Williams possibly didn’t know as he made final preparations for an important League One game with Doncaster Rovers was the shot across the bows from his boss, chairman Darragh MacAnthony, on his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast the evening before.

Basically MacAnthony said the recruitment had been excellent – ‘the most excited I’ve been about a squad in two-and-a-half years’ – and it was up to the manager to make it work.

Team news for the game against a Donny side who were bottom of League One with no wins in six matches was eagerly-awaited and when it arrived there was instant deflation in the press box, well from me anyway. Williams had doubled down on his 4-4-2 gamble ignoring midfielders who are better players than the wingers currently at the club.

What followed in the next 90 minutes was no surprise. Posh were beaten up and looked bereft of confidence and ideas. Boos rang out from the crowd at half-time and louder ones followed at full-time. It was reminiscent of 11 months earlier when then bottom-of-the-table Blackpool came to London Road and won 2-1. Darren Ferguson was sacked that night.

Williams shook hands with Donny boss Grant McCann after the game and rushed down the tunnel. He was not seen on the pitch again, the usual venue for his post-match interviews.

I mentioned it felt like the end in a match report posted at just after 5pm on the PT website. As colleagues waited patiently for Williams there was sense of inevitably about what was about to unfold.

At 5.30pm the PT received word that club secretary Liz Elsom had taken Williams to the boardroom to speak to the chairman, who was Stateside at home.

At 5.40pm we were told unofficially by club staff Williams had been sacked. The PT had a managerial obituary written within minutes ready to post.

At 6pm Posh press officer Phil Adlam informed us Williams had indeed gone and that his assistant Ryan Harley would be out to address the media shortly.

At this time the club released on official statement confirming the news.

At 6.15pm I left London Road with the words of one staff member 'we’ve lost a good man, a really lovely fella’ ringing in my ears. The person concerned didn't say the decision was wrong though.

Later that night a Swansea City supporting friend contacted me to say it reminded him of the time Williams left his club. ‘He’d had good results with us,” I was told. “But towards the end he made strange comments which confused fans. His interviews alienated us and the players stopped playing for him. He now seems like he’s morphed into his mentor, Russell Martin.”

Almost a year ago MacAnthony was quoted in the statement announcing Ferguson’s departure, but his name was absent from the one confirming Williams’ sacking. Ferguson’s record at the club demanded he received more time and respect than a mere mortal manager.

They were both dismissed soon after desperate results though, presumably when MacAnthony was still raging, understandably to be fair.

MacAnthony has still not commented publicly so perhaps we will have to wait for the next ‘Hard Truth’ for, well the truth, although the logic behind both decisions was surely flawless. A team losing games and playing in a dull fashion will never be tolerated at London Road, and nor should it be.

Williams has also yet to comment.