Manager Darren Ferguson insists Peterborough United's hectic schedule should suit the players

Ferguson believes his side have lacked rhythm in their play as they’ve faced just five League One matches in the first six weeks of the season. Posh have collected seven points, but only one from their three home matches. They’ve also conceded the first goal in every League One game so far.

But a home game with Bristol Rovers on Saturday (3pm) is the start of a run of seven matches in 21 days for Posh, six in League One and an EFL Trophy match against Stevenage. Posh currently expect to play their scheduled League One game against Rotherham United at the Weston Homes Stadium on October 12 even though Hector Kyprianou and Sam Curtis are likely to be away with their countries.

"I do feel we will get better once we get into the rhythm of playing matches regularly,” Ferguson said. “It’s something another young group needs and we have a deep enough squad to cope with playing Saturday and Tuesday for a few weeks. We were able to leave George Nevett and Cian Hayes out of the squad altogether last weekend even though we are still without Ryan De Havilland, Rio Adebisi and Mo Susoho.

“We’ve been a bit hit and miss so far which was exactly how last season started for us. I spoke to captain Hector Kyprianou about exactly that this week so we’re certainly not panicking.

“Obviously we don’t to start the season not winning any of our first home games so Saturday is important for us. We know we have things we must improve on, and regardless of tactics and formations, we need to find a way to win tomorrow. We’ve discussed it at length and worked on finding a way past the low block we’ve encountered in all three home games so far and now it’s time for the players to take the responsibility of putting a performance on. Scoring first would probably make a huge difference to us.

“I don’t want to keep banging on about last season, but we do have another young group who have started in a similar way. The messages stay the same though – it’s just the personnel that has changed.

"Bristol Rovers will present a strong challenge. They changed manager last season and it was probably just a case of getting through to the end and then enabling the new manager to bring his own players in. He’s done that and results were very good until last weekend.”

Rovers lost 4-0 at home to Wigan last Saturday. They’d also lost their previous League One game narrowly at Barnsley.

De Havilland is expected to male his first appearance of the season for Posh Under 23s in their Northants Hillier Senior Cup tie at Peterborough Sports next Tuesday (September 24, 7.45pm) when the Posh senior team has a League One game at Leyton Orient.

Forthcoming first-team fixtures (League One unless stated): September 21- Bristol Rovers (home); September 24 – Leyton Orient (away); September 28 – Birmingham City (away); October 1 - Wigan Athletic (away); October 5 – Stevenage (home); October 8 – Stevenage (home, EFL Trophy); October 12 – Rotherham United (home).