Anything that Eastenders or Coronation Street can do, Charlton can do better when it comes to Christmas drama. From Les Reed's sacking in 2006 to Roland's takeover in 2014, we love to rival the soaps at this time of year. So determined to steal the festive headlines again, a host of new characters come to the table just as we face Peterborough on Boxing Day.
Peterborough United earned their nickname in the 1920s when an earlier incarnation of the club were said to be looking for "posh players for a posh team." Much of their history though has been far from posh, with as much drama off the field at times as on it, including the famous Posh Spice v The Posh court case.
Historically, the winners of that court case have mostly floated through the lower divisions of the league. They won the old fourth division title twice, in the 1960s and the 70s, before that took on the posher name of League Two. More recently, since the 1990s, they've had four promotions out of League One into the Championship where they've never stayed very long. The last of these came in 2021 before relegation back down again the season after alongside Barnsley and point-stripped Derby County. However that year in the Championship has left them with a decent squad, including the prolific club captain Jonson Clarke-Harris, coveted by promotion-chasing rivals Ipswich.
Like Derby and Barnsley then, they're amongst the divisional favourites to make the play-offs. But like us, they've been on a poor run of form of late, losing four out of their past five matches. Their manager Grant McCann, former Northern Ireland international, might be coming to Charlton on Boxing Day under a wee bit of pressure.
And that pressure will have gone up a notch with Charlton's appointment of Dean Holden in midweek. The Addicks are likely to experience some kind of managerial bounce even though the players staggered or limped off the pitch exhausted after the thrilling win over Brighton on Wednesday. We would at least hope so, especially under the gaze of our new trio of Andy Scott, Jim Rodwell and Ed Warrick up in the posh seats. If we win, we rise to within seven points of Peterborough and maybe, just maybe, there's hope of a second half surge towards the play-offs.
But right now, many fans are also concerned about more than just the Boxing Day fixture. All eyes might be as much on those posh seats wondering what comes next before the festive drama has run its course. Maybe we'll have more answers by the time we get to the university town of Oxford in our last match of this topsy-turvy 2022.
Happy Christmas everyone and let's hope for a spicy start to the festive fixtures with a win over the Posh.