When Peterborough United bashed Barnet 9-1 in a Division Three game

Giuliano Grazioli celebrates one of his five goals in a 9-1 win at Barnet. Photo by Tom Hevezi PA.

For Posh had been the last team to score nine in a fourth tier Football League match 26 years earlier when they spanked Barnet 9-1 at Underhill in a Division Three game on September 5, 1998.

Posh actually scored 10 goals that day as centre-back Mick Bodley scored an own goal against a Barnet side led by two of the good guys in Posh history, John Still and Mick Halsall. Posh legend Ken Charlery was also suffering in the Barnet side alongside other ex-London Road men Scott McGleish and ‘battling’ Billy Manuel.

Star of the show was Giuliano Grazioli who scored five times which remains an individual scoring record in Posh’s Football League history. He was originally credited with six goals before one was taken off him and passed to Jimmy Quinn.

Giuliano Grazioli scoring for Posh in a 9-1 win at Barnet in 1998. Photo David Lowndes.

Veteran Quinn scored twice with first goals for the club scored by right-back Dean Hooper and teenage wing wizard Matthew Etherington who popped one into the top corner from 30 yards out not long after his 17th birthday.

Grazioli only played because of injuries to others. Incredibly he was due to sign for Barnet the following week after the clubs agreed a fee for a player Posh snapped up from non-league Wembley FC.

Grazioli recalled in an interview with farpostheader.com: “That game was by far the best performance of my career, but literally two days earlier, I was told a fee had been agreed with Barnet and I was to join them following the match.“The only reason I played was due to injuries to key forwards leading up to the game. On the day itself, in the crowd were my parents, sister and a host of family and school friends. They all sat mingling with the Barnet fans, which before the game we thought would be a good idea. None of us envisaged the story that unfolded.

"They had a man sent off early and we just kept scoring. It was surreal really. The move to Barnet didn’t happen and I ended up top scorer with 15 goals that season.”

A goal for Giuliano Grazioli as Posh beat Barnet 9-1 at Underhill. Photo David Lowndes.

Barnet has a second player sent off early in the second-half and Posh ran riot in the final stages against a tired team.

Grazioli’s career at Posh had been bedevilled by injuries, but it was a surprise to see him turn down a new contract offer from manager Barry Fry at the end of that season and instead he joined his old team-mate Jimmy Quinn who was then managing Swindon. Grazioli started just 24 Posh matches and scored 17 goals in four years at the club.

The demolition job Fry's team did on the Barnet club he took into the Football League beat the previous Third Division record for a victory, which also went to the away side when Scunthorpe won 8-1 at Torquay in October 1995.

MATCH STATS

Posh: Bart Griemink, Dean Hooper, Adam Drury, Matthew Gill, Mick Bodley, Andy Edwards, Simon Davies, Derek Payne, Giuliano Grazioli, Jimmy Quinn, Scott Houghton. Subs used: David Farrell, Zeke Rowe, Matthew Etherington.

Barnet: Nicky Rust, Billy Manuel, Mike Harle, Warren Goodhind, Jon Ford, Mike Basham, Phil Simpson, John Doolan, Ken Charlery, Sean Devine, Paul Wilson. Subs used: Scott McGleish, Stevie Searle.

Goals: Posh – Grazioli (26 mins, 27 mins, 49 mins, 56 mins and 89 mins), Quinn (15 mins, 43 mins), Etherington (90 mins), Hooper (80 mins).

Barnet – Bodley (og, 28 mins).

Sendings off: Barnet – Ford (violent conduct, 10 mins), Goodhind (serious foul play, 59 mins).

Cautions: Posh – Edwards, Payne.

Attendance: 2,330.