Peterborough United boss 'under no illusions' as to how tough Stevenage will be and he has high praise for counterpart Steve Evans

Posh will face the side managed by Steve Evans live on Sky Sports on Wednesday night (8pm) with the added pressure of knowing all of their immediate rivals won on Tuesday night.

Newly-promoted Stevenage are enjoying a fine season and sit in sixth, one point clear of the chasing pack but having played two games less. They have not conceded a goal in their last four matches although their previous two matches have been 0-0 draws with Lincoln and a ten-man Fleetwood.

Their ranks include Dan Butler, Nathan Thompson and Ben Thompson who all made the move from the Lamex to Posh over the summer but only Butler has been a regular in the side in recent weeks.

Posh, who now trail Derby in second by seven points, but with two games in hand, are looking for their fifth straight league win to keep pace with their automatic promotion rivals ahead of Saturday’s crunch clash with leaders Portsmouth.

Darren Ferguson is expecting a tough test against a manager with a track record of promotions and one which he replaced at Posh when he returned for his third spell in charge of Posh in 2019.

Ferguson said: “There are a few that went there in the summer, great lads and professionals who played a big part in the success that we had at the club.

“I worked with Nathan and Dan more- they were a massive part in the last promotion- and then there’s Ben, who is a great kid.

“It’s good to see them join a club that is still challenging to get out of the league. It will be good to see them, we’ll put that to bed, we want to beat each other and then we’ll have a chat. Me and Nathan speak quite a bit.

“They’ve had a fantastic season. To be around the play-offs, you may have thought they would fade away after starting so well but they haven’t. They’ve been right in there all season.

"If, after 37 games, you’re in the top six then you’ve clearly have a very good season for a reason.

“We’re under no illusions and know that it will be a really tough game. They are very aggressive and have real quality at the top end of the pitch. We will play our game and hope that it is good enough.

“Steve has a great record of success of many clubs and is a local guy but I’m not reading much into that. This is about two clubs both going very well. It will be a competitive game and we’ll have to put our best foot forward and hope it’s enough.”