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Fergie has decided his starting XI
DARREN Ferguson has seen enough. Injuries permitting, the Peterborough United manager has picked his team for the opening day Championship fixture at Derby 10 days in advance.
DARREN Ferguson has seen enough. Injuries permitting, the Peterborough United manager has picked his team for the opening day Championship fixture at Derby 10 days in advance.It's a line-up that won't be revealed to the club's fans until just prior to kick-off at Pride Park. Even the formation shouldn't be taken for granted – Ferguson prefers a 4-4-2 set-up, but he is willing to change depending on the strengths and style of the opposition.
Ferguson will also be keeping a close eye on the club's injury list.
Striker Craig Mackail-Smith, winger Chris Whelpdale, central defender Craig Morgan and midfielder Dean Keates all missed last night's friendly win at Stevenage (Read match report: Stevenage 0, Posh 2 - Batt and Lee scorea couple of crackers).
Posh won 2-0 thanks to excellent finishes from Shaun Batt and Charlie Lee.
Ferguson said: "I know in my head the team I want to play at Derby, but obviously that will depend on the injury situation.
"Mackail-Smith did some running yesterday and he has a chance of being involved in the friendly at Oxford on Saturday.
"I also hope to have Morgan and Keates available at Oxford. Whelpdale might be able to train with the rest of the first-team next week so he is ahead of schedule which is good news.
"We like a 4-4-2 formation, but we also have to take into account the strengths, weaknesses and style of play of the opposition. For instance Derby played 4-3-3 a lot last season."
It's likely that George Boyd and Aaron Mclean would play up front together if Mackail-Smith fails to recover from injury in time, although Batt did his prospects no harm last night.
Lee appears to be putting pressure on club captain Russell Martin for the right-back berth, while newcomers Toumani Diagouraga and Tommy Rowe have also been making strong claims for a starting position in the first competitive match.
Ferguson added: "We still have some fine tuning to do, but there were some positives last night.
"The goals were both terrific strikes. We stuck Shaun up front to see what he could do and he was very impressive.
"We also picked up our first clean sheet of pre-season so that was good."
Posh have two further friendlies for the senior players before tackling Derby. After visiting Oxford, Posh host Premier League side Sunderland next Tuesday.
The club's youth and transfer-listed players are at Rushden & Diamonds for a friendly tonight (7.45pm).
The club's latest signings from Crawley Town – striker Andy Mills and midfielder Romone McCrae – were handed second-half substitute appearances last night and are expected to start at Nene Park tonight.
TICKETS for the opening day Championship fixture at Derby are now on general sale at London Road.
Posh have sold 1,700 of their 3,000 allocation.
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 11 February 2012
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