Peterborough United boss on a five-way struggle for two play-off places and going into the Oxford United game 'blind'

​Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson is predicting a mad, five-team scramble for the last two League One play-off places.
Posh boss Darreb Ferguson. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.comPosh boss Darreb Ferguson. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com
Posh boss Darreb Ferguson. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com

​And he described the shock result of the League One season last weekend, when bottom club Forest Green Rovers beat title favourites Sheffield Wednesday, as ‘perfect’ for his own team’s preparations.

The current top four of Plymouth Argyle, Wednesday, Ipswich Town and Barnsley are set to battle it out for the two automatic promotion places with two of them certain to take part in the play-offs.

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But Ferguson believes any two of the next five teams in the table can also join in the post-season fun.

"That Sheffield Wednesday result was a good one for us,” Ferguson insisted. “It just shows any team can beat any other team in this division and I hammered that point home to my players this week.

"We know from our own recent experiences that if you are not at it in any given game you will get beaten.

“It’s now an eight-game season so whoever is the most consistent team over those games will be successful.

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“You have to say it’s us, Derby, Bolton and then Wycombe and Portsmouth in that fight for two places. It’ll be interesting and it’ll be exciting.

“Our win against Derby will mean nothing if we can’t follow it up with another win, and I know that from experience there will be twists and turns and teams will drop points."

Posh host struggling Oxford United at the Weston Homes Stadium on Saturday and Ferguson admits his team will go into that match ‘blind’ because of a recent change of manager at the Kassam Stadium.

Oxford sacked long-serving manager Karl Robinson earlier this month and replaced him with former MK Dons boss Liam Manning.

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Manning, who was sacked by MK after failing to follow up a superb first season in charge there, has overseen just one Oxford game, a 1-1 draw at Morecambe almost two weeks ago.

"I suspect Oxford's style of play won’t change much,” Ferguson added. “Karl’s teams played football and Liam’s MK team played in a very similar style. We don’t know for sure of course so we are going into the game blind, but as always it’s how we perform that concerns me.

"I am shocked Oxford have struggled so badly though. You look at their players and it looks a really strong League One squad.

"They have good attacking players with six or seven wingers to choose from and Cameron Brannigan in midfield is one of the best in the division.

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"We can guarantee one thing and that’s Oxford will be scrapping for their lives like every other team around the relegation zone.”

Oxford are one place and two points above the drop zone, but have played fewer games than their nearest rivals.

They haven’t won since a shock 2-1 success over Ipswich Town, a run of 11 games, nine of which have been lost.