Nathan Thompson relieved to get a fresh start at Peterborough United after being close to leaving the club and credits tactics of Darren Ferguson for resurgence

Nathan Thompson has spoken of his happiness to be handed a second chance just as his Posh career looked the be coming to an end.

The 32-year-old had fallen out of favour under previous boss Grant McCann and, prior to his start at Port Vale in Darren Ferguson’s first match back in charge, had not appeared in a league game since the defeat at Bristol Rovers on November 19.

Ferguson has restored the promotion-winner to his position at right back though and he has been part of the Posh defence that has kept two clean sheets in two away games. Since Ferguson’s return, no opposition player has scored against Posh, with the only goal that they have conceded coming from an unfortunate deflection off Thompson against Portsmouth last week.

Speaking after Saturday’s 2-0 win at Forest Green, Thompson revealed that he was close to leaving Posh in January.

He said: “Naturally, it is difficult when you’re not in the team. I tried to be as positive as possible around a young group. There are some managers you click with and some you don’t and that’s no slight on the previous manager.

“I maybe wasn’t his style and he didn’t appreciate my style of play but that’s football at times. The new manager has come in, we’ve worked together before and he knows what I’m about and my qualities and hopefully I can show those when I’m on the pitch.

“I was close to leaving, when you get to my age you are keen to carry on playing and I wasn’t - Wardy was playing ahead of me. That is football and I’m quite fortunate in the sense the new manager has come into the team because I probably would have looked for pastures new.”

The return of Thompson to the Posh backline has coincided with improved defensive displays and three straight Posh victories that have catapulted them right back into the play-off race, just three points behind Barnsley having played the same number of games.

Thompson credited the form of Jack Taylor and Hector Kyprianou, among many, for the resurgence and believes that the style of play under Ferguson is what is behind the reversal of fortunes on the road.

He added: “It’s well documented that our away from wasn’t great before the turn of the year. We’ve addressed that over the past two games and that could be the catalyst for our play-off push. Our home form has been relatively strong this season. Promotions are built on difficult away games like this (Forest Green) and the boys ground it out. There’s real confidence there now.

“Two clean sheets in two away games is important and it is nice to get back involved, that’s what these promotion pushes are built on. We are always going to score goals at this club. It was just stopping goals going in and we have managed to do that of late.”