Peterborough United face Blackpool in big games twice in quick succession....but Ferguson only has eyes on one prize

Posh host the Seasiders in a vital League One game on Saturday (3pm) before travelling to Bloomfield Road for a Bristol Street Motors Trophy semi-final next Tuesday (February 20, 8pm).

The winners of the latter game will play a final at Wembley, but Posh boss Ferguson hasn’t given that tie a moment’s thought. His priority is arresting a run of three League One defeats in a row and getting Posh back into the automatic promotion picture.

Posh should be at full strength for the first time this month on Saturday as wingers Kwame Poku and Ephron Mason-Clark are expected to return after missing the 5-2 drubbing at Wycombe Wanderers last weekend.

They were due to play in a home game against Port Vale on Tuesday which fell victim to a waterlogged pitch.

"Right now I’m only focusing on Saturday,” Ferguson, who will start a two-game touchline ban after collecting multiple yellow cards, insisted. “I won’t even think about Tuesday until after the first game. They are both very big games for the club, but the league is our priority.

"The teams will know each other very well soon, but they will be two games in isolation. One won’t have a bearing on the other. For now I want to see us get back to the levels we were showing before we started the bad run.

"We wanted to play on Tuesday obviously, but by not playing we will have freshness about us and we’ve been able to get a couple of days extra training into Ephron and Kwame.

"It will be important to keep everyone fit for the rest of the season now. Impact injuries during games can’t be helped, but we have to avoid muscle injuries.

"We have another break after we play Cambridge next weekend, but after that it will be pretty much non-stop. If we win on Tuesday we will have eight games in the final month of the season. There will be resting of players, we will just have to get on with things.

"Blackpool, like us, are not in the best of form. They have been much better at home than away and they had a long trip to Cheltenham on Tuesday which they lost, but they have an excellent coach who has won promotion from League One with the club before and he has a very good squad of players. I certainly wouldn’t discount them from reaching the play-offs.”

Posh midfielder Hector Kyprianou will need to tread carefully. If he picks up his 10th yellow card of the season on Saturday he would miss the following weekend’s derby at Cambridge United as well as the home game with Exeter on March 2.

It has emerged that new Posh right-back Vontae Daley-Campbell was playing for Cardiff City Under 21s until last month when he had his contract cancelled by the Welsh club by mutual consent.

Daley-Campbell is scheduled to play for Posh Under 21s at Burnley on Friday. If he proves his fitness in that game he could be involved at Cambridge.

The postponed Port Vale match is likely to be rearranged for April. The Posh trip to Cheltenham, scheduled for Saturday, March 23, is likely to be moved to a midweek date the following month as it’s currently clashing with an international weekend.

Posh expect to have Ronnie Edwards, Michael Olakigbe and Jadel Katongo in an England Under 20 squad that weekend.