Peterborough United wary of the FA Cup threat from a team 36 places below them in the Football League

The form guide points to a comfortable home win as a Posh team riding high in fifth place in League One and who have scored nine goals without reply in their last two home matches tackle a Doncaster team launguising in 17th place in League Two. Rovers have lost seven of their nine away games this season.

But Posh boss Darren Ferguson sees threats in a Doncaster side managed by ex-London Road chief Grant McCann. Ferguson is also mindful how close Posh were to losing to Salford City – a team one place lower in League Two than Doncaster – in the first round when the underdogs were denied by injury time equalisers on two occasions. Salford were also one penalty kick away from winning a shootout.

Ferguson, who played down the obvious soundbite of a battle between two managers who have both worked at Posh and Doncaster, said: “We’ll need a good performance to win on Saturday. Doncaster had a slow start to the season, but they’ve picked up of late and they have a couple of strikers in good form and scoring goals who are a handful. They have a decent blend of youthful and experienced players.

"Obviously a home tie gives us a great chance of reaching the third round which is a box we want to tick this season, but we had a home tie in the last round and got taken all the way which we will want to avoid this time. I don’t care how we win as long as we do.

"But we’re in good form. The belief and maturity are growing and in our last two home matches we’ve been very good and looked like scoring plenty of goals. When we’re on song we are very hard to play against.

"There are always things you can improve on individually and as a group and that’s we are trying to do every day.

"Grant McCann has been very good for our club. We worked very well together when he was playing for me, but this game is not about me and Grant, it’s about two teams trying to get into the third round of the FA Cup and then drawing a Premier League club. The priority for both clubs is the league, but we will both want to win this game."

Posh are expected to field a strong side, but they are assessing a couple of players who picked up minor knocks in Tuesday’s competitive 2-2 draw at Stevenage.

Centre-back Romoney Crichlow will return to the squad after missing the midweek match because of injury.

Joe Ironside (8 goals) and Mo Faal (7) are Doncaster’s top scorers. They both scored in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Colchester United.