Peterborough United manager delighted with the impact of his major summer signing and he’s going to get even better

Clarke-Harris moved to Posh from League One rivals Bristol Rovers for a reported £1 million in the summer. The 26 year-old was handed the unenviable task of replacing Ivan Toney.

But Clarke-Harris has risen to the challenge. He’s the joint top scorer in League One with 13 goals in 21 appearances. He will lead a forward line at Ipswich Town on Saturday (January 23) which has started to look very menacing. Siriki Dembele and Sammie Szmodics will provide the support for a player who has clearly impressed the manager.

“Jonson can be very pleased with his season so far,” Ferguson stated. “He has been very consistent and if he keeps his current scoring levels up he will be on for a very good season goals-wise.

“He’s a poper man. He’s very brave. Just look at the first goal we scored against Charlton on Tuesday. I know a few strikers who wouldn’t have got involved with two centre-backs as he did and the result was another goal for Sammie.

“Jonson takes a lot of punishment, but he is a handful himself. He was outstanding in the last 30 minutes against Charlton as he occupied two defenders and helped us get up the pitch.

“He can still improve. He needs to look after the ball better at times, but that’s something we’ve been working hard on with him, but I’ve been delighted with him.

“The front three have taken a while to click, but they are combining well now and look a real threat. Their intensity levels have increased and they are creating goals for each other. They are a real handful when they are at it and it helps us that we also have Ricky-Jade Jones back.

“There’s Mo Eisa as well so we have really good options up front.”

Ferguson also praised the recent work of skipper Mark Beevers and the rest of the Posh defence.

“‘Beevs’ has been oustanding on the left of the back three,” Ferguson added. “We moved him so we could play Nathan Thompson in the centre and move the ball better from the back.

“Defensively we’ve done well lately. When we switched to a flat back four against Charlton the two centre-backs (Beevers and Frankie Kent) headed everything. and were outstanding. Frankie has enjoyed a very consistent season.

“We also have good defenders who haven’t played all that much like Frazer Blake-Tracy and Niall Mason. It was a tough decision to pick Nathan ahead of Niall for the Charlton game after the way Niall had played against MK Dons.”

All the Posh players passed their mandatory Covid tests today.