Peterborough United manager urges his players to take a golden opportunity to make the League One play-offs

Posh midfielder Kyle Dempsey is in the running for a starting place against AFC Wimbledon.

Despite indifferent form over several months - Posh have not completed back-to-back League One wins since October 27 - Posh are seventh in League One, just a point and a place outside the League One play-off zone.

Posh will return to the top six if they get a better result at bottom club AFC Wimbledon than Doncaster Rovers achieve at play-off rivals Blackpool tonight (March 12, 7.45pm kick offs).

“The opportunity is there for us,” Ferguson, who is expected to make severeal changes to his starting line-up tonight, insisted. “Not just tonight, but in the remaining 11 matches. We are within touching distance and it’s all to play for still.

Ivan Toney should start for Posh at AFC Wimbledon.

“It’s all about consistency now and we haven’t had that for several months. Whoever becomes consistent in the last couple of months will get that last play-off slot and we must make sure it is us.

“We didn’t play well enough at Bradford on Saturday, but now it’s about how we react. Everyone loses games, but the best teams and the successful teams bounce back to form straight away. I’m glad we have another game straight away so we can get the Bradford match out of our system. There are different ways to lose a game and that wasn’t a nice way after we dominated possession, but then fell apart after conceding the first goal.

“It will be tough tonight. Wimbledon, like Bradford, are fighting for their lives and have improved since switching to three centre-backs and they comfortably beat Doncaster at the weekend, but it’s a game we can win providing we play to our best. We need to implement in matches what we work hard on in training.

“I will freshen up the team with some changes. We need to get more shots on goal when we are dominating possession whic is something we didn’t do at Bradford.”

Striker Ivan Toney can expect a recall probably to play alongside Matt Godden. Lee Tomlin could be the player to make way.

Others in contention for a start are midfielders Louis Reed and Kyle Dempsey as well as centre-back Rhys Bennett.

Flying winger Siriki Dembele and centre-back Josh Knight will be absent because of injury, but the former could return to play against Southend at the ABAX Stadium on March 23.

Knight could return early in April.