Peterborough United want to draw a line under the Joel Randall affair after he returned to action in Stevenage win

Randall made his return to the first team fold on Saturday in the the 2-1 win over Stevenage having been dropped from the squad for the Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic matches last week due to concerns about his attitude and that fact he was not happy at the club.

But the 24 year-old came off the bench on Saturday to replace Cian Hayes at half time and performed pretty well as Posh won the match with a last-gasp goal from Kwame Poku.

In his pre-match press conference on Thursday, boss Darren Ferguson said the situation could be rectified, but that he would have to wait to see if that happened before Saturday. It now appears that Randall has made peace with the boss and his teammates. Ferguson was not on post-match media duties.

Scarff said: “There’s been a lot spoken about this. When you’re working with people these situations can arise. Joel has got himself back in the group as he did what he’s needed to do and, like any player, he knows what he needs to do to stay in the group. A lot has been said and we now need to draw a line under that now and we move forwards.”

Posh were, however, dealt a further blow for next weekend’s home game against Rotherham United as midfielder Archie Collins picked up his fifth booking of the season and will now serve a one-match suspension. Posh were already without injury victim Hector Kyprianou. Collins deputised as captain for Kyprianou on Saturday.

Scarff added: “It’s always a blow when people are suspended. Archie is one of our senior midfield players. It’s disappointing we have got to a stage where he’s booked five times so early in the season. Collectively, we can be more aggressive in the middle of the pitch without being booked.

“We knew that this was going to happen, there was no way he was going to get to Northampton (the five yellow card amnesty match) without getting booked so we’ll just plan accordingly and get on with it.

“The timing of Ryan De Havilland coming back is therefore important, especially with the amount of injuries we also have. It’s good to see him back and he did quite well when he came on today. We’ve got a game in the week, where I’m sure he will get some more minutes and I’m sure he’ll be pushing himself forward for selection next week.”

Posh now face the same opposition again on Tuesday night in the EFL Trophy but striker Bradley Ihionvien appears to be a doubt for the match after suffering a setback in training that prevented his return from a calf strain.

Scarff said: “He was close, he had a little setback in training and we’re not going to take unnecessary risks with players. He had a setback yesterday and he’ll be reassessed on Monday and we’ll see where he is at.”