Peterborough United boss on ignoring recent results against Wycombe and he recalls the day he nearly 'broke his back' in a previous Trophy final
Ferguson accepts Posh were outplayed on both occasions by ‘The Chairboys,’ a 2-2 draw at the Weston Homes Stadium in October and a 5-2 thumping at Adams Park in February.
“Wycombe will play in exactly the same way again,” Ferguson suggested. “We’ve had two very difficult games against them when they played very well and we didn’t.
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Hide Ad"They are a good side and are always well organised, but the League One games will mean nothing when we kick off at Wembley.
"We will be playing on the best surface we will have seen all season and I hope we can zip the ball about and impose our game on them.
"I’m certain my players will relish the occasion. They should set out to enjoy it because games like this don’t come around very often.
"Realistically teams are our level only have two chances to get to Wembley every season and we’ve come through the tension, anxiety and pressure of a semi-final to earn it.
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Hide Ad"At the start of the competition it’s my job to make sure the players see the bigger picture and visualise the reward at the end of it.
"When you get to the quarter-finals Wembley comes into focus for everyone and the way we played in that semi-final at Blackpool, after losing our four previous games, was testament to the character and quality in the squad.
"I’ve been lucky enough to be here as a manager with this club before and I want to enjoy this one more than I did the last one as we didn’t play well. We won, which is the most important thing, but it would be great to get a performance as well this time.
"It’s always a special day when you are playing at Wembley. Seeing the stadium for the first time as you drive up and then setting foot on the pitch for the first time, even though there’s no fans in the ground, are special moments.
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Hide Ad“Matches like this bring a city together and it looks like we will be backed by close to 25,000 fans which is a great effort.
"It’s a big game and we want to win, but it’s not the biggest thing we are after this season.”
Posh beat Chesterfield 3-1 in the Trophy Final in 2014, but were then denied a second trip to Wembley that season after losing in the League One play-off semi-final to Leyton Orient.
Ferguson also won the competition as a player with Wrexham when he scored in a 2-0 win over Southend in the 2005 final played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
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Hide AdHis goal prompted a surprise celebration as Ferguson recalled: “I don’t know where that celebration came from and I don’t know what I was doing that far up the field in the final minutes of extra-time.
“I nearly broke my back doing a forward-roll. I got carried away as it meant so much. It was definitely one of my best memories as a player in my career. We’d been concentrating on the league and trying to stay up after being docked 10 points.
"I was initially signing for Wrexham for a week and ended up staying eight years!”
Ferguson was coaching a Wrexham youth team when he agreed to join Darragh MacAnthony’s Posh revolution in 2007.