New Peterborough United manager faces a race against a time

Ferguson has been pleased with the reaction of his inherited squad since his shock return to the ABAX Stadium on Saturday in place of Steve Evans. Ferguson and his coach Gavin Strachan have spent two days working on a formation and playing style that will hopefully lead to promotion to the Championship in May.

Ferguson admits it’s not ideal Posh face an immediate fixture at Bristol Rovers tonight (January 29, 7.45pm), but he admits it’s vital his new team hit the ground running at the start of a 17-game run to the end of the season.

“Ideally I’d have had a free week to start,” Ferguson said. “I’ve only had two days with the players, but they have been a good two days. The players have been very good. Every manager has their own style of play and mine will be different to Steve’s.

“We’ve worked hard on how we want to play, but it’s also important we don’t make dramatic changes too quickly. We don’t want to confuse the players.

“There are some good players here. Obviously I know Lee Tomlin and Marcus Maddison very well, but the others I didn’t know before I got here. There’s plenty of ability though. The recent signing of Lee Tomlin is massive. No disrespect to League One, but Lee is way above this level. We just have to get him fully match fit.

“It’s a tough game to start with. When I played Bristol Rovers away was always a hard game and that will be the case tonight. They’ve also had a managerial change recently, but it’s up to us to make the game about us. We need to focus on our gameplan.

“There might be a couple of tweaks, but the squad will be pretty much the same as on Saturday.”

Posh had sold just over 100 tickets for the game at Rovers at the close of business yesterday. Pay on the gate is available.

Posh Under 23s play Southend at home today.