Peterborough United boss on the confidence flowing through his free-scoring centre-forwards following an 8-1 win

The Posh boss was therefore delighted to see his two centre forwards Brad Ihionvien and Gustav Lindgren score five goals between them as National League North side Peterborough Sports were hammered 8-1 at PIMS Park on Tuesday night. Ihionvien’s hat-trick made it six goals in his last three pre-season outings.

Abraham Odoh, Harley Mills and Kyrell Lisbie also scored. Mills scored with an unstoppable strike into the top corner.

"Pre-season is important for strikers,” Ferguson said. “Goals give them confidence and you can see that clearly in Brad and you will see it with Gustav. Gustav’s movement was outstanding again and the more often he makes his runs the more often we will find him. Chris Conn-Clarke and Declan Frith teed him up tonight and his finishing was excellent.

"Brad was again on form. His third goal was the pick. That was a great finish after he worked the ball on to his left foot. Harley’s goal was special as well. He shimmied on to his left foot and then his shot was unstoppable. The quality of our goals was good tonight.

"We started the game well and scored, but we got sloppy by trying to force passes when there was no need to against a team that pressed us more than I expected them to and who got the ball forward quickly and won a lot of set pieces. It was a good test for us on a pitch that was a little ‘bitty.’

“You would expect our fitness to be superior as the game wore on and we did start and finish the second half well. You can see the lads are progressing physically and it was a very good workout for us.”

Posh skipper Sam Hughes was a surprise starter and managed his 45 minutes of pre-season. Ferguson will now try and get 90 minutes into most players who travel to another National League North side King’s Lynn Town on Friday (7pm) or National League Boston United on Saturday (3pm).