Peterborough United chairman on cheeky requests from Birmingham City ahead of a Wembley Final
Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony believes Posh can win a ‘Battle of the Champions’ at Wembley.
MacAnthony was thrilled to see his side book a second trip to the national stadium in 12 months for the EFL Trophy Final with a semi-final penalty shootout success at Wrexham. Posh will be huge underdogs in that April 13 final as they face a star-studded, expensively-assembled Birmingham City side.
It looks certain to be the biggest crowd to ever watch Posh in a competitive match with ‘The Blues’ capable of selling in excess of 50,000 tickets.
In fact MacAnthony has revealed the League One champions-elect have already made a cheeky request to have some of the Posh allocation, as well as asking if they can wear blue in the final. Posh won the toss to use home kit ahead of the semi-finals.
Those requests were made to Posh director of football Barry Fry who managed Birmingham when they won the EFL Trophy in 1995. That was the last time Birmingham won the competition hence MacAnthony’s ‘Battle of the Champions’ comment as Posh are the current holders.
The biggest crowd at a Posh game is 64,531 at Aston Villa for a 1961 FA Cup tie.
“I’m really happy for everyone to be going back to Wembley,” MacAnthony said. “I’m particularly happy for the fans who have been rewarded for sticking with us through a tough season. For them to get to see such a dramatic win was special.
"I’m sure the plates and glasses were smashed at Sky, Disney, Paramount and everyone else who wanted the ‘Hollywood Final’ though. Instead we have the ‘Battle of the Champions.’ It will be David v Goliath and we can’t get carried away given who we are playing, but, on a big pitch, we can win.
"It should be a glorious occasion. Birmingham will probably bring 50,000 fans. I think they’ve already been on to Barry to have some of our allocation! And to be honest we won’t sell 50,000 and the more fans at the crowd the more money we make. They also asked Barry if they could play in Blue and he said ‘sure, for a million quid!
“It’s been put to the back of our minds now though. We need to fully focus on our League One position.”