Strong under 21 side for Peterborough United as manager tries to boost the confidence and fitness levels of senior players

The 22 year-old Posh Academy graduate missed an absolute sitter in the dying moments of Saturday’s 1-1 League One draw with Wycombe Wanderers at the Weston Homes Stadium.

Jones is the club’s top scorer in all competitions with 15 goals, but only eight have arrived in League One games and none since a late tap-in in the 3-1 defeat at Bristol Rovers on February 2.

Posh have certainly not lost faith in the speedy striker, but manager Darren Ferguson believes he needs a confidence boost. Jones will line-up in a strong Under 21 team alongside Kwame Poku, Jadel Katongo, Chris Conn-Clarke and Mo Susoho. Poku played for 20 minutes as a substitute against Wycombe in his first appearance since December 4.

"I’ve said it before, but Ricky is over-thinking things,” Ferguson said. “He needs to concentrate on what he does best which is stretching defences with his pace. When he does that consistently the confidence will return and so will the goals. He actually played well when he came on against Wycombe. He played a big part in how well we finished the game. Brad Ihionvien went through in the second-half and saw his shot blocked after cutting back on to his left foot. It’s not a criticism of Brad, but Ricky would have got away there which is why he is so important to us.

"Obviously he has to score at the end as it looked harder to miss and there was another one when he ran through and hurdled the goalkeeper when he should have dinked the ball over him and tried to score. I’ve had a chat with him and it’s obvious he needs that confidence boost, but I reminded him he at least got into the perfect position to score and he clearly isn’t hiding as some players would even though he’s in the middle of a difficult spell. It’s a shame Gustav Lindgren is injured again as he would take some of the pressure off.

"I need to get a goal into Ricky which is why he is playing for the under 21s tomorrow. Others who haven’t been playing will also be involved in a very strong side. With Kwame we will get him to half-time and see how he is. He came through his appearance on Saturday well enough. He was never getting many more minutes than I gave him, but I knew he would give the crowd a lift when he went on and that’s what happened.

"When we didn’t shoot with the goalkeeper out of position towards the end, Kwame picked up the ball when we had a 4 v 2 so he should have played another pass. Our stat of of only scoring more than one goal in one of the last 12 League One games isn’t good enough given how many great positions we get into and the number of chances we create.

"We played very well on the day against Wycombe, but we needed the second goal to kill them off. We can talk about bad refereeing decisions, but it was a conversation we wouldn’t be having if we had taken our chances.”