Ronnie Edwards admits he let summer transfer speculation affect his form but he has learnt from it

The 19-year-old centre-back was heavily linked with Premier League giants Chelsea with the London club and Crystal Palace both rumoured to have made bids on deadline day in the summer.

Posh did not feel that their valuation was met, however, and Edwards remained at the club and has gone on to appear in 22 of Posh's 27 League One matches this season.

He was linked with a move away again in January, with Championship side Stoke City being believed to have shown interest on deadline day but Edwards thinks he handled this interest much better this time around.

He said: “It’s tough when you get told different things from different places but you have to keep your cool and give it your all for the club you’re signed at and do well to win games.

“It happened in the summer and I did let it affect me in the first couple of months but this January I think I’ve dealt with it very well. It’s something that’s probably going to always happen but I think I went about it in the right way and am looking forward to carrying on playing.

“The club has helped me but you’ve got to deal with it yourself. It’s down to you how you perform on a matchday and if you want to let someone get in your head then it’s on you.”

Edwards faced some criticism for his performances in the opening weeks, particularly in relation to his dealing with big physical forwards which are commonplace in League One.

"It’s something I probably get more hate for than not and it’s something I’m learning and have got to learn. This is the league where I’m going to need to learn the physical side of the game and I love it” he explained.

Since Darren Ferguson’s return, Edwards has been at the heart of a Posh defence that has kept two clean sheets in three games, with the only goal conceded coming from an unfortunate Nathan Thompson own goal at home against Portsmouth.

That run of three straight wins has seen Posh close to within three points of the play-offs places and Edwards is convinced the club has a great chance to go on and achieve promotion.

He said: “I think we’re getting better at grinding out results. We did it at Port Vale as well as against Forest Green. If we find a way to win, that’s all that matters. We want to perform well but winning is all that matters. We

“Clean sheets are massive and I don’t think we’ve kept enough this season. It’s important because we know that we’ve got goals in the team and if we can stop the ball going into the net, we’ll have a great chance of winning more games.

“We’ve got a massive chance of getting in the play-offs and if we do, we’ll go on to win it and get into the Championship. We’ll just take it game by game and keep grinding out results and see where it takes us.”