Peterborough United's boss hopes to see his players run through brick walls to deliver victory over Cambridge for the fans

Grant McCann has challenged his players to run through brick walls to deliver three points in the Cambridgeshire Derby on Saturday.

The sense of occasion is building as Posh host Cambridge in the first league meeting between the sides since December 2001.

The two sides played out a 0-0 draw on that day but Posh are defending an unbeaten record against their rivals stretching back to 1998.

Victory would cap off a perfect nine-point week for Posh and keep up the pressure on Sheffield Wednesday in third with the gap now down to just three points.

McCann has stressed the importance the fans will play in helping the side over the line and how much his side are keen to deliver for them.

He said: “The stadium is going to be bouncing. I think back to the second leg in the playoffs against MK; the atmosphere in that game was relentless and unreal and it drove us.

“We’ll look to take our plan into the game and make it a ‘Blue Day’ and get the fans cheering for us.

“Our fans are really important to us, they’ll be behind us fully and the boys will hopefully run through brick walls for them and show that fight and determination to get the three points.”

Cambridge will be backed by over 2200 fans of their own inside the stadium but Mark Bonner's side come into the match sitting in 16th place, having plummeted down the table in recent weeks.

On Tuesday night (October 25), they ended a run of five straight League One defeats with a 3-2 win at Wycombe that maintained the nine-point gap up to Posh.

McCann is not taking their challenge lightly though and trying as much as possible to treat the game as any other.

He added: “The excitement is for both sets of fans and football clubs to build it up as much as they can but for us as a team, we need to stay focused on the job and make sure we perform.

“Aside from this being a big derby, I don’t think form matters that much in this league away. The relentless Saturday, Tuesday nature of the games makes it hard to be consistent.

“We want to try and perform to our best like any other game and we’ll give it our best shot to get three points.

“Like any team in the division, they’ve got threats. It was a tremendous result at Wycombe. It’s another tough game but our boys are well-equipped to understand what Cambridge are about, we’ve done a lot of work on them in the past few days.”

Posh have received positive news on the injury front and could welcome back Ricky-Jade Jones, Joe Ward and Josh Knight.

Knight dropped to the bench against both Oxford and Accrington Stanley after feeling fatigue in his groin.