Biggest four days of Peterborough United's season coming up, too many star men had off days, plus latest thoughts on Steer and Clarke-Harris

In fact if Posh keep hold of Ronnie Edwards, Kwame Poku, Ephron Mason-Clark and Hector Kyprianou, and re-sign Peter Kioso, I’d say a week, including a poor performance in a drab 0-0 draw at Lincoln City, was still a pretty successful one.

With automatic promotion rivals Portsmouth and Bolton Wanderers strengthening their squads in recent days, January 28-February 1 is the most important little spell of the season for Darren Ferguson’s side.

Posh certainly can’t afford to become weaker. Let’s hope the chairman holds his nerve – notwithstanding financial constraints – and sticks to his demand that players will only be sold if they are loaned back for the rest of the season.

TALKING POINTS FROM LINCOLN 0, POSH 0…

1) Bad days will come along, especially with such a young squad. It’s just a shame so many players had the same off day with star men Ephron Mason-Clark and Hector Kyprianou among those to play well below their normal level. And yet there is no reason to get over-despondent. Posh didn’t lose for a start even though, on chances created, they should have done. It’s now 13 away points from the last 15 available for a team who have now played two more games on the road than at home. It’s 12 League One games unbeaten and they have no particularly tough-looking games left to play away from the Weston Homes Stadium. The trouble with being so good, so often, for so long is it becomes the expected norm, so when standards do drop it’s all the more disappointing.

2) It’s tempting to say the blueprint to stifle Posh has been laid out by Lincoln. Set up on as narrow a pitch as possible, defend deep and in numbers, hump the ball forward and try and catch a much more talented team playing out from the back. It’s a pretty negative approach, but with better forward players Lincoln might have won this game. Posh have been receiving well deserved accolades from the football world for the attractiveness of their football this season, but high praise has spooked some teams into playing for a draw, even at home. The roar from the home fans that greeted a ninth League One game without a win at the final whistle was one you’d more readily associate with a big win in the FA Cup.

3) Kwame Poku’s ability to take the ball in tight areas with his back to goal and still beat his marker is needed in games like this. His replacement David Ajiboye is a completely different sort of winger, one who needs to run in behind and keep moving forward before crossing and shooting. Playing the right ball in these conditions was beyond Posh in this game, apart from in the final minute of the first-half when Ajiboye set up the only clearcut Posh chance of the half for Ricky-Jade Jones. Ajiboye looks hesitant and lost when coming back for the ball. Poku’s fitness bulletins in the next few days will be eagerly awaited with fingers firmly crossed.

4) It was still strange to see Ajiboye depart when Jonson Clarke-Harris came on. Ajiboye is more likely to cross the ball on to the big striker’s head than Mason-Clark. It was good to see Clark-Harris back in the fold though. If the passing game is off key when chasing a goal as it was yesterday there’s nothing wrong with mixing the game up and hitting longer balls forward as long as they’re not being aimed at Jones.

5) Ferguson is right to play Nicholas Bilokapic in goal against AFC Wimbledon in an EFL Trophy tie on Tuesday while Jed Steer’s immediate future at London Road is up in the air. I still hope Posh can find a way of keeping Steer until the end of the season and if they do he should be first choice on form right now. He exudes confidence and calmness and he has excellent concentration as he has shown in the last two matches when making excellent saves after barely touching the ball for an hour or so.

6) Posh had the hardest game on paper of any team in the top eight yesterday so losing some ground wasn’t entirely unexpected. Posh are not scheduled to play against a top-half team in February apart from Blackpool at home and they are poor travellers. They still move back into the top two if they win their game in hand on leaders Portsmouth, although it would be lovely if Oxford could rediscover their best form and beat Pompey at the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday in the only League One game of the night.