Big match preview: Peterborough United are getting ready for 'Mission Impossible', with form guide, odds, ref watch, current form, past matches

It’s the lowest scorers in the division against the highest scorers and the struggling side will travel extremely light on senior defenders. Indeed only 18 year-old Lucca Mendonca is available, unless there is some very surprising injury news regarding Tom O’Connor.

County and long-serving, multi promotion-winning manager Dave Challinor parted company in the summer after a 4-1 defeat to Bolton Wanderers in the League One play-off final. He’s been replaced by former County defender Jimmy McNulty who steered Rochdale to promotion from the National League last season.

McNulty enjoyed a 450-game pro playing career which included a debut goal for Brighton in a 4-2 home loss to Posh in February, 2009.

If McNulty’s side does have a weakness it’s defensively. They’ve let in 10 goals this term, the same as 22nd-placed MK Dons, and just two fewer than Posh.

FORM GUIDE

County have won three of their seven League One games, all of them after excellent attacking displays. They triumphed 3-1 at Plymouth, 4-0 at Wigan and 5-1 at home to Wycombe. They lost their last home game 4-3 to Leicester City with ‘The Foxes’ surviving a late onslaught after County fought back from 4-1 down.

Last week County suffered a rare blank, drawing 0-0 at Sheffield Wednesday.

MEN TO WATCH

Powerful centre forward Kyle Wootton and wide man Jack Diamond have both scored four goals apiece in seven League One games. Wootton finished last season playing as a centre-back. Winger Ryan Glover has contributed a couple of goals after a summer switch from Barnet. He was reportedly a target for Posh.

Forward Harry Wood, a close season recruit from Irish football, has scored three League One goals.

PAST MATCHES

At least Louie Barry won’t be at Edgeley Park to torment Posh on Saturday. A striker who was on loan at County from Aston Villa scored a hat-trick in this fixture last season which the home side won despite falling behind to an early Harry Leonard goal.

That stretched County’s winning record in Football League games at home to Posh to 12-8 from 31 meetings. The hosts have won the last two clashes with Posh last winning in their League One promotion season of 2008-09 when County delivered an own goal either side of a Ryan Tunnicliffe strike. The teams didn’t meet in the EFL between 20o9 and 2024.

MAN IN THE MIDDLE

Ross Martin referees the first Posh match of his career at Stockport County on Saturday. He’s taken charge of eight matches this season, four of them in League One, and issued 31 yellow cards and one red card.

BIG MATCH ODDS

Sky Bet bookmakers have latched on to the likely weakness of the Posh squad on Saturday. Posh are 6/1 to win the game at Edgeley Park, with the hosts at 1/3 and the draw at 4/1. Posh are currently 6/4 joint second favourites to be relegated alongside Wigan Athletic and behind Bromley 4/6.

SUPERCOMPUTER

‘BETSIE’ the supercomputer brainchild of Betarades (details here) does not believe the season will end well for Posh. ‘BETSIE’ has apparently simulated the league season 100,000 times, accounting for all match results from pre-season and the previous campaign. It projects outcomes based on pre-season expectations, fixture difficulty, and underlying performance metrics such as xG for and against.

Latest finishing prediction: 1 Leicester, 2 Sheff Wed, 3 Luton, 4, Huddersfield, 5 Oxford, 6 Stockport, 7 Bradford, 8 Plymouth, 9 Orient, 10 MK Dons, 11 Reading, 12 Cambridge, 13 Wycombe, 14 Blackpool, 15 Stevenage, 16 Notts C, 17 Wigan, 18 Mansfield, 19 Wimbledon, 20 Burton, 21 Barnsley 22 POSH, 23 Doncaster, 24 Bromley.