Peterborough United were elected to the Football League in 1960, the same year that the Football league Cup was launched and on Saturday afternoon at The Mem we play them for the first time in that competition.
That 1960/61 season saw Rovers win the first ever tie in the competition, by virtue of the fact that our game against Fulham kicked off earlier than the other tie played that evening, between West Ham United and Crystal Palace.
Rovers were 2-1 winners against Fulham, with Harold Jarman (pictured above) and Geoff Bradford (pictured left) on the scoresheet though the honour of scoring the first ever League Cup goal was claimed by Fulham’s Maurice Cook, who netted after just nine minutes.
If we are being perfectly honest, our League Cup record is poor, with our best years in the competition coming over 50 years ago. We reached the quarter final in 1970/71 before losing 1-0 to Aston Villa in a replay at 
Villa Park following a 1-1 draw at Eastville.
We reached the same stage of the competition the following season but lost out to Stoke City, who were 4-2 winners at Eastville. Since then, there really hasn’t been too much to write home about though there was a famous replay win at Old Trafford, against Manchester United in the 1972/73 competition.
There was also a win against local rivals Bristol City in 1991 when, after losing the first leg 3-1 at Twerton Park, we were 4-2 winners at Ashton Gate in the Second Leg and went through to the next round on the away goals rule, where we were beaten 2-0 by Nottingham Forest.
Everton were beaten in a penalty shootout at The Mem in 2000, but we suffered a 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Sunderland in the next round 2-1. Then we managed to lose the first ever preliminary tie in the competition in 2002, losing 2-0 to league newcomers Boston United at The Mem.
Since then, we’ve experienced a special night out at Stamford Bridge, where were beaten 3-2 in 2016 and a win at Craven Cottage, home of Fulham, in 2017.
And that’s about it, really; our last win in the competition came back in 2019 when we lost a home game 2-1 against Brighton & Hove Albion and the goal scored by Tom Nichols in the 64th minute (pictured below) was the last time we scored in the competition.
We’ve played six games since then, losing to Ipswich Town, Cheltenham Town, Crawley Town, Ipswich Town (again), Cardiff City and Cambridge United. The last three ties have all been lost by the same 2-0 margin.
By our reckoning, the match against Peterborough United will be our 156th in the competition and our overall record is as follows
Played 155, Won 46, Drawn 35, Lost 74 Goals For 182, Goals Against 229
Of the games we’ve counted as draws four have been won on penalties, one has been lost on penalties, and two have been won on the away goals rule.
Peterborough will be the 58th different team we have played in the competition and so, in the words of a well known song, ‘Things can only get Better’ so here’s to a goal and, more importantly, a win on Saturday!
