Peterborough have made more than £20m selling strikers under chairman Darragh MacAnthony... but their latest hotshot Jack Marriott is staying calm under weight of expectation

  • Jack Marriott joined Peterborough from Luton over the course of the summer 
  • The striker made an instant impact, scoring six times in League One in August 
  • He is the latest talent to be plucked from lower leagues by Darragh MacAnthony
  • Dwight Gayle, Britt Assombalonga and others have been sold on for big fees 

There can't be many other jobs in League One that come with quite as much expectation.

When Jack Marriott arrived at Peterborough in the summer, he knew all about the men who had gone before him - talented lower-league strikers who became prolific marksmen for Posh before grabbing big-money moves upwards.

That has been the club's revenue model for the duration of chairman Darragh MacAnthony's tenure - and it has been lucrative both for Peterborough's 'goals for' column and their bank account.

Jack Marriott enjoyed a superb first month to his Peterborough United career

Jack Marriott enjoyed a superb first month to his Peterborough United career

The talented striker netted six goals in four League One games for Posh in August

The talented striker netted six goals in four League One games for Posh in August

Aaron McLean £1.25m, Lee Tomlin £1.5m, Paul Taylor £1.5m, Connor Washington £2.7m, Craig Mackail-Smith £3.25m, Britt Assombalonga £5.5m, Dwight Gayle £6m… a combined total of £21.7m and 329 goals between them.


And now it's Marriott's turn.

The diminutive poacher, who models himself on Sergio Aguero - 'we're both quite small… there's not many people I'd be able to model my game on' - jumped at the opportunity to join the club from Luton in the summer.

Now, after a gluttonous August in which he netted six times in four games and earned the SkyBet League One player of the month award, parallels are unsurprisingly being made between him and Posh's illustrious alumni.

But the instant recognition hasn't gone to his head. 

'If I can achieve even half of what they've achieved with Peterborough and in their careers then I'll be doing alright,' a modest Marriott tells Sportsmail.

Those performances earned the striker the division's player of the month award in August

Those performances earned the striker the division's player of the month award in August

Marriott spoke to close friend Craig Mackail-Smith about moving to Posh from Luton

Marriott spoke to close friend Craig Mackail-Smith about moving to Posh from Luton

Marriott has struck up a relationship with Junior Morais and Marcus Maddison - and this meme on social media goes to show how much they are appreciated by supporters

Marriott has struck up a relationship with Junior Morais and Marcus Maddison - and this meme on social media goes to show how much they are appreciated by supporters

'With the history of the club and the strikers that they had, I knew what I was signing up for when I signed. I know that they produce good strikers and they've got the development to improve me and that's a key factor in coming here.

'The chairman is very good at picking young strikers from non-League. They come here and they do well and they get their moves, and they do well for the club. The managers he's appointed, especially with the manager now, are very good at spotting talent.'

Marriott needed little convincing to move to the ABAX Stadium in the summer - a chat with his close friend Mackail-Smith made sure of that.

'I trust him, we're very close and when he says "it will be a great move for you", I listen,' Marriott says of the veteran forward, now with Wycombe, who scored 107 goals across three spells with Posh earlier in his career.

'He knows the manager well, he knows the club very well.

'He said it's a great club, a great reputation for breeding strikers and he knows that I would do well under the manager. That was his output on it. He believed that with the way the manager is and the way I play, it would work well.'

Marriott gave his new fans an early glimpse of what they could look forward to with a pre-season friendly hat-trick at Cheltenham and matched that feat on just his second League One start for Peterborough, at Bristol Rovers.

He is following in the footsteps of several strikers who have flourished at Peterborough

He is following in the footsteps of several strikers who have flourished at Peterborough

Britt Assombalonga ended up being sold to Nottingham Forest for £5.5million

Britt Assombalonga ended up being sold to Nottingham Forest for £5.5million

While the goals have dried up a little of late - he hasn't found the back of the net this month - an exciting partnership has developed with Junior Morais and Marcus Maddison.

The M and Ms have become firm fan favourites - a Twitter cartoon of the trio as the chocolate sweets of the same name is testament to that - and between them the three have played a major role in taking Posh into the automatic promotion places.

'We've got some firepower in this team,' Marriott says.

'Marcus Maddison has been superb. He'll do fantastically again this year. Junior has been excellent and he's a great player to play with.

'We all want to do well… and we've got Ricky (Miller - signed from Dover in the summer) now as well. We've got the firepower.'

Marriott is right. Peterborough have an arsenal that is the envy of the division at the minute - no one in the third tier has scored more than their 16 league goals - even with their leading scorer on a three-week dry run.

Then again, he has given supporters the right to hold him to ridiculously high standards.

'It's not necessarily a bad thing. I put plenty of pressure on myself to keep hitting high standards so that'll be the biggest pressure,' he says.

Dwight Gayle made a huge profit for Posh when he moved to Crystal Palace for £6million

Dwight Gayle made a huge profit for Posh when he moved to Crystal Palace for £6million

'As soon as you think you've made it, that's when you start heading downhill. You've got to keep level-headed and keep working hard. Don't change a winning formula.

'It's been a great start for me personally and for the club. We're playing some really good stuff and we feel like we can take it to any team we play against.

'Personally, it's just great to score goals and great to get that little bit of recognition but it's only the start. I just want to keep building, keep pushing and hopefully gain more of it.'

Not that he sees Peterborough as a career stepping stone - even if in the past MacAnthony has never stood in the way of players looking to further themselves elsewhere.

'Fundamentally we want to get promoted as a club and that's our ultimate aim. I want to do well for the club rather than myself,' he said.

'If we get promoted and we're in the Championship and that's where we want to be as the club. That's the priority. I think we have the quality to do that.

'If it happens then great. I just want to do well for the team and hopefully we can succeed together and that can go down in the history books.'

PETERBOROUGH'S STRIKING RICHES

Aaron McClean

Cost: £125,000 (Grays Athletic, January 2007)

Sold: £1.25m (Hull, January 2011)

Profit: £1.115m

 

Craig Mackail-Smith

Cost: £125,000 (Dagenham, January 2007)

Sold: £3.25m (Brighton, July 2011)

Profit: £3.125m

 

Paul Taylor

Cost: Free (February 2011)

Sold: £1.5m (Ipswich Town, August 2012)

Profit: £1.5m

 

Dwight Gayle

Cost: £470,000 (Dagenham & Redbridge, January 2013)

Sold: £6m (Crystal Palace, July 2013)

Profit: £5.53m

Lee Tomlin

Cost: £200,000 (Rushden & Diamonds, August 2010)

Sold: £1.5m (M'brough, February 2014)

Proft: £1.2m

 

Britt Assombalonga

Cost: £1.25m (Watford, July 2013)

Sold: £5.5m (Nottingham Forest, August 2014)

Profit: £4.25m

 

Conor Washington

Cost: £150,000 (Newport, January 2014)

Sold: £2.7m (QPR, January 2016)

Profit: £2.55m

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