It’s 200 up for Fergie with many more to come, closing in on a Barry Fry record and who would have thought DarraghMacAnthony’s left-field appointment would deliver so impressively?

Ferguson reached that impressive milestone with an FA Cup first round victory at Oxford United last Saturday.

It’s taken him three spells spread over 13 years, but it’s a decent club record to stand alongside his three promotions, something else no other Posh manager has achieved.

Ferguson was MacAnthony’s first, and comfortably his best, managerial appointment. The brash new club owner sacked Keith Alexander after a run of seven straight defeats in League Two and started searching for an innovative thinker rather than an established figure.

There was a suspicion Ferguson’s famous father had influenced MacAnthony, but the chairman saw only a modern thinking, passionate young man with a belief in attacking football. Music to MacAnthony’s ears in other words. Coaching experience limited to Wrexham Under 15s didn’t matter.

And what a relationship they have.

MacAnthony has twice sacked Ferguson, but the pair are older and wiser now and set fair for a lengthy relationship as Posh desperately seek Championship football at London Road for the first time since 2013.

The Championship managerial sacking season has started, but, although Feguson is keen to test himself again in the second tier, the chances of him leaving if approached are miniscule.

As Posh co-owner Dr Jason Neale stated recently: “Darren has one of the safest jobs in football, will ultimately manage in the Championship and have the opportunity to lead us out in a new stadium. Why would he leave?”

A fourth Posh promotion to follow the back-to-back successes in 2007-08 & 2008-09 and the thrilling League One play-off win in 2011 would confirm Ferguson’s place in club folklore.

And his side are currently sitting prettily at the top of the third tier after winning eight of 11 matches. The football is still attractive and attack-minded.

Winning regularly is an art Ferguson appears to have mastered.

No wonder Posh have inserted a huge seven-figure release fee in his current contract to ward off potential suitors and no wonder he’s favourite to win the October manager of the month prize for League One.

FIRST WIN V AN OLD CLUB

It took Darren Ferguson four matches to record his first win as Posh manager, a 3-0 success over his old club Wrexham in a League Two game at London Road in February 2007 .

His 5oth win arrived in November, 2008 when Colchester were beaten 2-1, again at London Road.

Ferguson reached 100 wins with a 3-1 success over Reading in a Championship match in March, 2012 and number 150 came against MK Dons in League One in August, 2014.

FERGIE FORM

Darren Ferguson has won 39 of his 77 games (all competitions) in charge of his current spell at Posh which is a 50.64 win percentage return.

His first spell yielded 73 wins in 145 matches (50.34%) and his second spell saw 88 wins in 222 matches (39.63%).

His current spell is the only one not to include Championship matches.

Record

2007/9: P145 W73 D32 L40.

2011/15: P222 W88 D41 L93

2019/20: P77 W39 D16 L22

Overall P444 W200 D89 L155

CLOSING IN ON BARRY FRY’S RECORD

Darren Ferguson has comfortably won more games as Posh manager than anyone else.

Only current club director of football Barry Fry (488) has managed more Posh matches than Ferguson (444), but he ‘only’ won 167 of them, 33 fewer than the current manager.

Fry took charge of a Posh record 414 Football League games in his decade as manager. Ferguson is currently on 383 games so will create a new club record later this season barring a most unlikely departure from London Road.

Most League games as Posh boss: 414 Barry Fry, 383 Darren Ferguson, 292 Noel Cantwell.

Most League wins as Posh boss: 170 Darren Ferguson, 134 Barry Fry, 120 Noel Cantwell.

Best % of League points won as Posh boss: 63.3 Jimmy Hagan, 59.9 Chris Turner (first spell), 57.83 Ferguson (first spell).

Ferguson overall 44.1%