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Ferguson: Let’s seize this opportunity
SET TO START: Grant McCann.
DARREN Ferguson has urged his players to seize a glorious opportunity to heap the pressure on the teams at the bottom of the Championship.
Posh host Portsmouth at London Road today (3pm) in one of just two Championship fixtures taking place. A win would only move Posh up one place to 15th, but three points would take them 12 points clear of the bottom three.
And that, according to Posh boss Ferguson, would cause panic among the struggling clubs,
“Psychologically this is a big game for us,” Ferguson insisted. “Because we have the opportunity to put even more daylight between us and the sides struggling at the bottom.
“If we win today we will move five points clear of Portsmouth, eight points ahead of Ipswich and 12 points ahead of Nottingham Forest and the others in the bottom three.
“If Forest see they are 12 points behind Peterborough when they next have a game I would think they would be worried.
“I still believe we will need 50 points to make sure of staying up, but we would be within 14 points of that target with 18 games left if we can win today.
“It won’t be easy obviously. Portsmouth have some very good players like all clubs in the Championship and I expect them to be well organised and highly motivated.
“We have worked well in training through. We’ve concentrated on being patient as we try and break teams down.
“We’ve also worked a bit on a different system. It’s one we’ve had up our sleeve all season so the players know it well.
“We haven’t created enough chances in our last two home matches and that’s not like us. We need to do better in that respect today.”
Posh expect to have skipper Grant McCann in their starting line-up for the first time in six weeks today.
Bristol City, who are three points behind Posh, travel to Reading in the only other Championship fixture today. The other 20 teams have fixtures on Tuesday or Wednesday.
CHAMPIONSHIP (Bottom half)
P W D L Pts
Leicester 27 10 8 9 38
C Palace 27 10 7 10 37
Barnsley 27 10 6 11 36
POSH 27 9 6 12 33
Portsmouth 26 8 7 11 31
Watford 27 7 9 11 30
Bristol C 27 8 6 13 30
MIllwall 27 7 8 12 29
Ipswich 27 8 4 11 28
N Forest 27 7 3 17 24
Doncaster 27 6 5 16 23
Coventry 27 5 7 15 22
n LEAGUE Two title favourites Crawley Town have signed former Posh youth team striker Dan Evans on a one-year professional contract. Crawley are managed by Dan’s father Steve Evans.
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
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