Peterborough United are going well, but they can do even better, formation fillip and will Watts stay?

Grant McCann’s men have won five of their last seven league matches and lost just one.

After Tuesday night’s 3-1 win over Accrington Stanley only leaders Plymouth Argyle have picked up more points at home and even they can’t match Posh’s 20 goals in eight matches.

And yet one senses there is far more to come from this set of players. They are undoubtedly showing the resilience McCann referred to after last night’s match, but they are only playing good passing football at a decent tempo in fits and starts.

That’s enough to beat defensively suspect teams like Accrington and Forest Green, but Posh have only played two of the current top 12 at the Weston Homes Stadium and they’ll need to be much better for longer when the big hitters do eventually come to town.

TALKING POINTS FROM ACCRINGTON WIN…

1) Since McCann stopped playing three centre-backs and two wing-backs, Posh have picked up 16 points in eight matches, which is automatic promotion form, but the change in formation co-incided with a run of fixtures against weaker teams apart from the first game in the sequence at Bolton which was lost. Despite facing limited opposition Posh have kept just one clean sheet in those matches so defensive security has been sacrficed for a greater attacking threat, which to be fair has been the club’s way for over a decade now. As McCann said publicly after the game last night he isn’t bothered about conceding goals if the game is still won. Some of the sketchy defending will surely have concerned him, at least privately.

2) Kell Watts is on loan initially at Posh until January. The expectation is Posh will extend the centre-back’s loan to the end of the season as long as his recovery from a long-term knee injury is complete, but will Newcastle let him stay if he isn’t playing? Watts, a title winner at this level with Wigan last season, has yet to start a League One match for Posh (he’s only come as a sub once) even though the defence is crying out for the balance, stability and intelligence he would probably bring. It’s a strange one unless he is still not fully match fit and only able to come on for short periods.

3) Ephron Mason-Clark has made his full Football League debut and scored his first goal - an absolute screamer last night – in the last few days. He has also claimed three assists in his first two games. It’s too early to get carried away as he’s probably been an unknown quantity for League One defences so far, but he looks a terrific prospect. He can beat a man in either direction and he clearly packs a powerful shot. Confidence oozed out of every pore last night before he faded towards the end. That left-sided attacking slot will either be Mason-Clark or Ricky-Jade Jones for the rest of this seaspn which is an exciting prospect.

4) Last night was the first time Posh had conceded the first goal and then come back to win since the opening day of the season at Cheltenham. It’s that resilience again.

5) Posh appeals for a better atmosphere at London Road didn’t really work. One would have thought the incentive to drown out the irritating Accrington drummer would have been incentive enough. At least a vibrant atmosphere is guaranteed on Saturday when Cambridge United are the visitors. Hopefully the noise will inspire Posh to play with a bit more tempo and gusto for the entire 90 minutes. If they can do that they will take some stopping.

6) For the second game in a row the opposition manager has made time to berate the match referee. And for the second game in a row he had a point as Craig Hicks was pedantic and inconsistent throughout last night.