PREVIEW: Peterborough United's captain determined not to let a golden opportunity slip

Jack Baldwin celebrates his goal for Posh against Northampton with the club's fans. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com

A solid run of form - Posh have lost just one of their last 11 League One matches - has pushed Steve Evans’ side up to fifth place with just six matches to go.

Baldwin accepts Posh have a tough run-in, but he is confident the playing squad will rise to the occasion.

And the club captain has a strong personal reason for wanting play-off success.

Jack Baldwin (right) scores for Posh against Northampton. Photo: David Lowndes.

“The play-off semi-final defeat in 2014 still hurts,” Baldwin stated. “I’d only just arrived at the club that January, but it was still a heart-breaking moment to miss out to Leyton Orient.

“I’m desperate to get into the play-offs and then win at Wembley. If I could captain the team to promotion at Wembley that would be my biggest achievement in football.

“I’m only 24, but I’m hungry for success now.

“And we’ve got ourselves right where we want to be now. To be fifth with six games to go is a great position to be in and we are determined not to let it slip.

“We have some momentum. We’ve drawn a lot of games, but are in decent form as we approach a very tough run-in.

“We have a few hard games on the road starting at Plymouth on Saturday, but we have players who will relish the big games. We’ve seen that often enough this season.

“Plymouth are flying so it will be tough. It’s a massive match for both teams and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t come out on top.

“The intensity in training has gone through the roof lately because everyone wants to be involved.

“The manager has been making changes to the starting line-up because he wants freshness in the side so we all have to be ready to play.”

Baldwin lost his place in the side after picking up a second red card of the season at Oxford recently.

He returned in place of injured centre-half Ryan Tafazolli for the derby win over Northampton and went on to turn in a goal-scoring, man-of-the-match performance.

“I was happy with the goal, but happier with the clean sheet,” Baldwin added. “It wasn’t a great idea to take myself out of contention for two games, but I made sure I was ready to play when required.”