Grant McCann's tribute to Peterborough United and Darren Ferguson ahead of FA Cup tie

But the former Posh boss - he was sacked and replaced by Ferguson last January – is keen to upset his old employers as well as the formbook to win a potentially lucrative third round tie.

Doncaster are 17th in League Two with a poor away record, while Posh are fifth in League One and playing some scintillating football, particularly at home.

"Peterborough is a club close to my heart,” McCann, who is a bona fide Posh playing legend, told the Doncaster media. “And the fans were brilliant and always helped me when I was a player and a manager there. But don’t get me wrong I want to go there and win on Saturday and get into the next round of the FA Cup.

“The third round of the FA Cup is huge for clubs like ours. Financially, it’s massive and the further you go in it, the prize money goes up. It can certainly benefit us, particularly going into January as well and it could give us more funds in the coffers to potentially go out there and bring a few signings in that we might need.

"But Peterborough are a very good team and it will be very tough for us. Darren has done a great job with them this season after going close to making the League One play-off final last season.

"They are strong all over the pitch and the bench is strong. They are a young energetic team with lots of pace and they have been strong at home whereas we haven’t been the best away from home.

"I’m sure everyone will have it down as a Peterborough win, but we will go there with a plan to try and hurt them. We will give it our best shot.

"We’re all looking forward to the game. For me it’s a good tie as I played my best football for Peterborough when Darren was the manager.

Fergie on McCann

“Gary Johnson actually signed me and I took a drop down from the Championship to League One because I could see the team getting promoted because of the quality of player they had, and they did.

"I still live very close to Peterborough. I enjoyed working there as a manager as well because there are good people at the club. It’s the same at Doncaster.

"We’ve had a slow start to the season, but we are getting better. The aim is still to get in and around the top seven to give us a chance of going up.”

Ferguson replaced Johnson as Posh boss in January 2011 and engineered a successful promotion bid with McCann as his captain.

Doncaster have won two and lost seven of their nine League Two away games this season.

The winners of second round FA Cup ties earn £67,000. A victory in the third round in the new year is worth £105,000.