And tomorrow lunchtime he hopes they will prove it when Gary McAllister's men roll into town for a mouthwatering high-noon showdown in League One.

Leeds are hot title favourites and have started the season in good form, but wideman Whelpdale is seriously confident about Posh's own chances of success this term.

And there would be no better way of underlining those promotion credentials than emerging victorious in arguably the biggest game of recent times at London Road.

Related:
Posh v Leeds: Match commentary and full preview, kick-off 12noon, 4 October
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"You still think of Leeds as being a Premiership club, but they are in League One now," said Whelpdale. "I haven't seen them play but everyone seems to think they will be right up there this year.

"And we will definitely be there as well in my opinion. Although we have had some disappointing results early in the season, we haven't faced a single team that have been better than us.

"We have lost games and dropped points due to silly mistakes, but we all know for a fact that we can live with any team in this division.

"We have to be clinical, take our chances and work really hard as a team like we did at Milton Keynes last Saturday.

"All footballers want to play in front of big crowds and that will certainly be the case for us tomorrow. Hopefully with all the fans behind us we can get a good result."

The visit of the Yorkshire side will be the biggest occasion of Whelpdale's fledgling football career. The former Billericay Town man has taken advantage of an injury to Sergio Torres to re-establish himself in the Posh first team in recent weeks.

He added: "If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I would never have thought I would be playing against Leeds. It is a great achievement for me and will probably be the biggest match of my career.

"The games against MK Dons – especially when I scored there last season – have been the biggest I've been involved in so far.

"I felt I had an effect on games when I came on as a substitute and it is nice to be back in the team, but when you have someone of Sergio's ability playing in the same position you know you always have to be at your best."

Torres is still sidelined by injury after missing a planned comeback appearance in the reserves earlier this week.