Peterborough United face a massive eight days of action

Posh boss Darren Ferguson has told his players how important it is to maintain current momentum as they face three games in eight days before a fortnight’s break.

Posh host promotion rivals Oxford United on Saturday (February 8) before entertaining struggling Southend on Tuesday (February 11) and visiting play-off contenders Fleetwood Town on Saturday, February 15.

Third-placed Posh then don’t play again until February 29 when they go to Burton. Posh were due to play Bury at home on February 22, but the Shakers have been expelled from the Football League.

“It’s another big week for us,” Ferguson stated. “The League One table will change again as pretty much everyone is playing three matches and we must make sure we at least maintain our position.

“It’s a tough start to that run as Oxford are an excellent team with an excellent manager. Oxford did well to stick with Karl (Robinson) when they were going through a tough time and he has now built his own side, and they are very strong.

“Karl’s teams always play good football which is why I always look forward to them. We’ve had some great battles in the past especially when he was at MK Dons, but we’ve always got on well. It will be another battle on Saturday. They have attacking threats like Matt Taylor and James Mackie, but they will know we have some big threats as well.

“It’s a game against a promotion rival so it’s obviously massive, but if we play like we have been playing and maintain our strong home form we have a good chance of another win.”

Oxford had a varied January transfer window as they signed ex-Posh midfielder George Thorne and enticed flying forward Marcus Browne back on loan from Middlesbrough. Browne scored twice in last weekend’s 2-1 win over Blackpool, but Oxford also lost key men Shandon Baptiste and Tarique Fosu to Brentford.

“George Thorne was a class act when he played for us on loan in the Championship,” Ferguson added. “He made his debut in the same game as Dwight Gayle and it was a real blow when we lost him. West Brom needed him for a game at Manchester United so we couldn’t really argue!”