Late fitness test for Dembele, but he might not get into the Posh team anyway

Dembele missed the midweek win over Ipswich Town with a knee injury and poor weather conditions have stopped Posh assessing whether or not the star forward has recovered sufficiently to play in a tough game in tough conditions. The foreacst for Blackpool is not expected to get much above freezing over the next 48 hours.

Posh are due to train at the Weston Homes Stadium this afternoon when Dembele will be assessed thoroughly.

It could be Posh manager Darren Ferguson sticks with Mo Eisa up front alongside top scorer Jonson Clarke-Harris anyway. Eisa impressed in the 2-1 win over Ipswich and Ferguson is desperate to find a remedy for some poor away form. Posh have won just five of 13 League One matches on their travels and scored just 11 goals, the joint lowest in the division, and five of their next seven matches are away from home.

“We have players who should be suited to playing away from home so our poor form is a mystery,” Ferguson stated. “We should be good on the counter attack with the players we have, but for some reason we are not creating anywhere near the same number of chances we create at home.

“That has to change quickly. We are playing a team who are good at home tomorrow and we have five games out of our next seven away.

“Away games are obviously generally harder, but we just have to find a way. It’s always tough at Blackpool and they haven’t lost at home since October, but we need to start on the front foot and get ourselves in front.

“Blackpool play a 4-4-2 formation usually and they will get good quality into our penalty area. It’s going to be freezing cold. It won’t be nice up there, but whether we win 1-0 or 4-3 it doesn’t matter, we just have to win.

“We didn’t turn up at home Blackpool and they deserved to beat us, but hopefully we’ve learnt from that game.”

Blackpool also have injury issues. Powerful striker Gary Madine is having a late fitness test, while flying winger CJ Hamilton has missed the last two months with a hamstring injury.

Next seven Posh games: Blackpool (away), Gillingham (away), Wimbledon (home), Plymouth (away), Wigan (home), Oxford (away), Burton (away).