Peterborough United manager sounds an Accrington Stanley warning ahead of a must-win game

Posh missed versatile wide man Joe Ward in Saturday’s 2-0 derby defeat at Cambridge United and it’s unlikely he will be involved at another bottom four side Accrington Stanley on Tuesday (April 18, 7.45pm).

Ward was due to have a scan on a foot problem today, but it has been pushed back to later in the week because of a scheduling mix up.

The 27 year-old was feeling much better this morning, but Ferguson described him as a ‘major doubt’ for the Accrington game. He could be ruled out for the season if the scan results are bad.

"We did miss Joe, but we can hardly complain about injuries as every team gets them and we’ve actually been fortunate in that respect lately,” Ferguson said.

"Joe’s problem had improved this morning, but he was always going to be a major doubt for tomorrow’s game so we need others to step up.

"Joe does make it easier for us to switch formations in a game as I always felt we might have to at Cambridge. We asked Ephron Mason-Clark to play as a wing-back, but he played it very differently to Joe and to be honest the way we performed as a team made it unlikely anything was going to work.

"We didn’t do the basics right. We didn’t run enough, work their goalkeeper enough or defend set-pieces well enough.

"I would never say my players didn’t want it as much as the opposition, but we’ve enjoyed complete domination of games recently and we didn’t react well to the fact we didn’t control this game. That has to be a one-off.

"Again though it’s all about the reaction. The last time we lost we responded very well and it has to happen again. We really have to go for it this week to make sure we stay in a play-off place. To do that we must get our performance levels right.

"We haven’t swept the result and performance at Cambridge under the carpet. The boys were in on Sunday and we reminded them today how we got ourselves into such a good position and we’ve moved on.

"It’s another tough game for us. I’ve never had an easy game as a manager at Accrington and I won’t get one tomorrow against a team who will fight for their lives.

“They are a very dangerous team and we will need to be at our best to get the win.”

Posh, who host in-form automatic promotion favourites Ipswich Town on Saturday, have no other injury issues.

Accrington will be without midfielder Liam Coyle who was sent off in Saturday’s 5-2 home defeat at the hands of Fleetwood Town.