The key battles Peterborough United's players will need to win to deliver victory over Cambridge United

Posh head to Cambridge for a league match for the first time in over 21 years on Saturday.

Darren Ferguson has insisted that Posh will be ready for whatever Cambridge decide to do but just where might the game won or lost.

The Peterborough Telegraph has analysed the key battles that Posh will need to win to take the three points.

Will Norris vs the home crowd

Returning to your old club can always be tricky for a player but in the case of Will Norris, even more so given the fact that he is returning in the colours of his former club’s biggest rivals.

Cambridge discovered Norris playing in the Spartan South Midlands League and gave him his break in the Conference, as it was in 2012.

The move worked out well as Norris was in goal as Cambridge won the 2013/14 FA Trophy Final at Wembley and in the same year, the club made it back to the Football League via the play-offs, beating Marcus Maddison’s Gateshead 2-1 on the day. In total, Norris made 93 appearances for the U’s.

All that means, Norris will likely face a tough day from the fans in the stands but must block it out and move on quickly from his error against Exeter, which proved not to be costly.

Before that, Norris had kept four consecutive clean sheets.

Jonson Clarke-Harris vs Ryan Bennett

Just like Norris, Ryan Bennett will be lining up in startling colours, at least from the perspective of Posh fans.

The 33-year-old defender made 84 league appearances for Posh- the exact same number Norris made for Cambridge- including winning promotion at Old Trafford in 2011 the but will line up in amber on Saturday.

He was spared the return to London Road by virtue of signing in January. Since then, he has been a mainstay at the back, helping to keep three clean sheets in 15 matches.

He will be tasked with the tricky tasks of keeping league One leading marksman Jonson Clarke-Harris off the scoresheet.

He may find stopping Clarke-Harris registering goal number 25 for the league campaign tricky without a centre-back of the calibre in the air as Gaby Zakuani beside him.

Ephron Mason-Clark vs Liam Bennett

Any Posh fan who also keeps an eye on Peterborough Sports may be familiar with the name as Bennett had a very brief loan spell at the Bee Arena last season. The highlight being a man-of-the-match performance on debut in a 1-0 defeat by Redditch.

The 21-year-old was expecting to spend the season away on loan at Walsall but was recalled in January as an injury crisis hit.

Now, the 21-year-old right back learning on the job for his parent club is his first full season in the Football League.

It is unlikely he has ever faced many players, with the direct running ability, pace and strength of Mason-Clark.

The Posh man has scored in four of his last six matches and will show no mercy to the youngster is fe he shows signs of being caught up in the big occasion. Bennett has mostly been filling in at right wing-back in recent weeks and won’t be able to afford to let Mason-Clark find space in behind.

Oliver Norburn vs Paul Digby

He may have only been back from his serious knee injury for a couple of months but Oli Norburn is perhaps playing as well as he ever has for Posh.

His partnership with Jack Taylor has already got fans discussing where it ranks among the greats of Posh history and that axis will need to be strong again on Saturday to come out with a result.

Norburn’s task will be to shut down his fellow midfielder Digby, who has the joint-most assists (three), second-most chances created (30) and most complete passes for Cambridge this season.

It appears that most of what Cambridge do well passes through Dibgy, so Norburn will have to make sure that he doesn’t get the space he wants to operate in.

Frankie Kent vs Sam Smith

Smith is Cambridge’s man of the moment. He is the club’s top scorer with ten league goals and has a goal in each of their last three matches.

His goals led to wins over Port Vale and Fleetwood as well as a 1-1 draw at Bolton on Easter Monday that was warmly welcomed by Posh.

The 6”1 striker provides the height, will line up along the 6”2 Harvey Knibbs to pose a threat and Smith will need to be tied down by Frankie Kent, who has been exemplary in his return to the team.