Peterborough United's shot-shy forwards are told to keep things simple
Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson has urged his forward players to make the game as simple as possible.
Posh head into Saturday’s game at promotion-chasing Huddersfield Town as big underdogs, partly because scoring goals has become so difficult.
Winger Kwame Poku is still the Posh top scorer in League One matches with 10 goals, and he hasn’t played since December 4.
Seven of the 15 goals scored by Ricky-Jade Jones this season have arrived in cup matches.
Malik Mothersille has also claimed eight League One goals, but four of those have arrived from the penalty spot. The former Chelsea Academy star now has the most assists (6) after teeing Hayes up for his goal at Stevenage.
Central defender Manny Fernandez is the next highest scorer with five goals.
Ferguson is considering a change to his front line for the game at the John Smith’s Stadium, especially as back-up striker Bradley Ihionvien came through 65 minutes of an under 21 match on Tuesday.
He has started just one League One game, the 1-0 defeat at Wrexham on January 4 in a season disrupted by injuries.
However Ihionvien offers something different with his extra strength and ability to hold the ball up so he is expected to challenge for a place at Huddersfield.
Wide player Cian Hayes is expected to start after his goal-scoring cameo from the bench at Stevenage last weekend in place of either Malik Mothersille or Abraham Odoh.
"Cian showed how to do it last week,” Ferguson said. “Shift the ball and shoot at goal. I was very pleased with him and he’s generally been good when we’ve played him on the right wing, but he’s also been a threat when he’s had to play as a wing-back which is not his position.
"There’s no doubt all the forwards are working hard for the team, but they’ve probably been guilty over over-thinking things by looking for another pass rather than being more direct and aggressive.
"That probably comes with a lack of confidence, but we continue to work hard with them and we believe in them.
"No-one will expect us to get anything from a game against a strong Huddersfield side with a deep squad, but we will get to play on a big pitch and if we do click we can cause them problems.
“A lot of the build-up play was good at Stevenage, but now we need to make sure we get the last bit right.
"I have no idea how many points we will need to stay in the division. It’s too hard to predict so all we can do is try and win the game in front of us. There are 15 very important ones left.”