'Luxury' of attacking players giving Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson a real headache going into new League One season

The Posh boss must now turn his attention to who will take to the field at London Road against Huddersfield Town on Saturday.

Posh’s players had their final chance to stake their case on Saturday as almost the entire squad got 90 minutes in one of two home fixtures against League Two side Notts County.

A line-up expected to resemble next Saturday's line-up battled to a 1-0 win thanks to an own goal from a Chris Conn-Clarke cross, while a younger Posh side ran out 4-3 winners thanks to a late David Ajiboye goal.

A Malik Mothersille double and a header from young defender Ollie Rose helped Posh on their way.

While admitting that he did not exactly enjoy the back-to-back 90 minutes format, Ferguson was pleased with his side’s efforts and now has a number of tough decisions ahead of the season opener.

He said: “I'm glad pre-season is over. It’s needed but it feels like a hard slog at times.

“There were pleasing things in both games and things we need to work on but everyone has got 90 minutes and that was the key today.

“We felt the opposition would test us as they are a possession based team, who like to control the game, which we are not used to.

“We found that difficult at times but we tweaked at half time in the first game and we started the second half with more intensity and a better press. They had a lot of the ball without really troubling us.

“It was difficult for the guys in the second game to wait, the heat increased and the atmosphere went down. It’s the first time I’ve done this and I’m not sure I’d do it again.

“I have a real good dilemma because we’ve added in the forward area of the pitch on top of what we already had in the building. It gives me a bit of a headache. I just tried different things today like putting Chris (Conn-Clarke) wide and Cian (Hayes) in the ten. David and AB (Odoh) swapped at half time.

“I’ve got a luxury of players up there, which gives me some tough decisions to make for the start of the season but I never overthink it. It’s just the first game of many.

“I’ve been pleased with the lads. We’re probably one short and need a centre-half.”

“Thankfully we have the first game at home. It seems a while since that’s happened. It’ll be a great atmosphere. I’m looking forward to it.

“The most important thing in the message to my players and the fans is that we are going to keep playing the way we want to play. We know that if we get it right, we will cause teams problems. We’ve recruited well, we’ve got real potential.

“We knew missing out on promotion would mean some good, good players would leave and now we’ve got to try and get other good ones in and improve them as best we can.”