Peterborough United's Joel Randall happy with form and believes he should be in Grant McCann's starting line-up

Randall scored his third goal in four pre-season outings on Saturday (July 23) as Posh comfortably beat Championship Hull City 3-0.

The second half strike, along with his goals against Leyton Orient and Deeping Rangers means that he has become a factor in McCann’s plans for the opening game of the season away at Cheltenham on Saturday (July 30).

If he was to start, it would be represent an impressive turn around for a player that struggled with injuries and form last season as he struggled to justify his seven-figure price tag.

Now though, Randall has been playing with a renewed confidence in pre-season after admitting to struggles with loneliness and settling in last season.

“I think that I have done well this pre-season and I’ve put myself in a good position to start next Saturday." He said after the victory over Hull.

He added: “I’m very happy to score three in four and hope I haven’t peaked too soon and it dries up in the league. I’m happy to just be out there getting minutes and contributing with the goals as well.

"I’ve got to keep mixing my game up, maybe at the moment I’m lacking a bit of confidence and sharpness but that will come with games and so will building relationships with my teammates but if I keep getting in the box and scoring, that will be great.

"My job on the wing is to get at the opposition and get a ball in the box for our strikers to try and score but also to help them out if they are struggling to score. I think any front three that starts the season will score goals and be direct.

The win against Hull has given Posh and Randall renewed confidence ahead of a tough League One campaign to come if the club are to regain their Championship status at the first time of asking.

Randall added: “We spoke before the game about wanting to work on our press in our shape and at half time we said that was working really well and then second half, that led to us getting opportunities off it and I think it’s building nicely for the start of the season.

“We’ve ended today on a real positive and hopefully we can take that into Saturday. There’s an excitement and buzz around the place, we just want to get out there and show what we can do. We know, going off today, we are in a good place and hopefully it will be a good season.”