Why Peterborough United should be regarded as strong promotion candidates with their battle-hardened pros and freakish captain

It’s also time for old hands as well as exuberant young talents and Peterborough United seem to have an abundance of both.

Who would you want to have in the trenches when pressure is at its greatest? Battle-hardened professionals is a good starting point and look at the seasoned warriors in this Posh squad.

Jonson Clarke-Harris celebrated his 400th senior appearance with two goals at Burton Albion last week.

Full-back Nathan Thompson is closing in on his 400th, central defender Frankie Kent may well have played his 300th at Lincoln City on Saturday (there’s currently a one-game discrepancy between stats compilers), midfielder Ollie Norburn is past 300, Joe Ward went past 200 Posh games earlier this season and even at the age of 24 Jack Taylor is approaching 250 senior games.

And the other common denominator between those players? They’ve all won promotion from this division with Posh before, apart from Norburn.

Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony has been critical of his senior players (the high earners) at times this season, but they’ve turned up this week to help complete two away wins at awkward venues by an aggregate of 8-2.

That experience and knowhow should be vital at crunch time and they have fearless young talent like Kwame Poku, Ephron Mason-Clark and Ronnie Edwards to support them.

And of course there’s a manager in situ with three promotions from this division under his belt already. What’s not to like about Posh chances?

TALKING POINTS FROM LINCOLN 0, POSH 3…

1) Would you rather be the hunter or the hunted? Posh would probably swap places with Derby County (currently 5th) and Bolton Wanderers (6th) in a heartbeat. Both have points on the board and Bolton in particular have the friendliest of League One run-ins, but pressure can do strange things to a team and its players. Derby have been outstanding at home this season, but out-of-nick Fleetwood won 2-0 at Pride Park on Saturday. Next up for the Rams is a trip to the Weston Homes Stadium next Saturday (March 25) to face a Posh team who have played with great freedom in their last two matches. There’s a good chance Posh will be the more relaxed and confident side, although it’s obviously a big step-up in quality of opponent.

2) Posh will be without Edwards against Derby, who will be without influential midfielder Jason Knight because of international call-ups. Edwards will be a big miss as he’s added plenty of steel to his quality on the ball since the turn of the year. Presumably Josh Knight will replace Edwards which would also involve Kent switching to left centre-back which isn’t ideal. Ferguson could select left-footed loan player Kell Watts, but that would be a huge risk given he hasn’t played since New Year’s Day.

3) Clarke-Harris is a freak. He takes a battering from centre-backs and can look horribly ponderous, but he never gets injured. Or if he does he just carries on. He’s appeared in every League One match for Posh this season (36 starts, 1 as sub) and, while others look stale and knackered at this stage of the season, he just gets stronger and quicker. He has been outstanding in the last two games, scoring three times and occupying defenders so the fleeter of foot can enjoy more freedom. The League One Golden Boot is well within reach and now looks to be a straight fight between the Posh skipper (22 goals) and Colby Bishop (18) who is enjoying an excellent first season at Portsmouth.

4) On loan Nathanael Ogbeta is an exciting full-back. For sure Posh would love to take him permanently next season, but he’s on Championship wages at Swansea so it might be difficult. Posh created nothing for 28 minutes at Lincoln until razor-sharp Ogbeta pounced on a slack opposition pass, drove into the penalty area and crossed for Clarke-Harris to claim the vital first goal. It was pretty straightforward for Posh after that.

5) Ward looks set to leave Posh at the end of the season when he will be out of contract and who can really begrudge him a move after six solid years of service at London Road. Ward has had dips in form, but overall he’s been a consistent performer, creator of many goals and scorer of some special ones. The smack against the post yesterday from 25 yards would have been a beauty. The one he did score seven minutes from time was a simple one for a man of his quality, but he was still running strong late in the game despite suffering a couple of heavy challenges. It’s the first time in his career Ward has scored in successive Football League matches and it’s now six goals for the season, the most productive of his time at Posh and there are still nine games to go. He probably hasn’t finished yet.