Posh boss still has his sights set on automatic promotion

Big match preview: Burton Albion v Peterborough United, League One, Saturday, February 29 (3pm)

Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson insists automatic promotion from League One remains the target this season.

But the Posh boss admits it will take a repeat of their recent six-game winning run for it to have any chance of happening.

Defeat in their last game at Fleetwood and two weeks off while their promotion rivals all played means Posh have dropped from second to sixth.

But they remain just six points outside the automatic promotion places with 11 games to play, the first of which is at mid-table Burton on Saturday when Posh will again be without League One’s top scorer Ivan Toney because of suspension.

“The top two is absolutely the target,” Ferguson stated. “But we will have to repeat the long winning run for it to happen.

“We are capable of doing it again and we are still within reach, but our focus for now is on winning at Burton and that won’t be easy.

“They are a funny side because when they are on it they play very well, but they’ve obviously lacked consistency.

“They played with a back three for the first time at Southend last week and won for the first time in seven matches. But it will be tough. We are away and our away form is not great.

“We did beat Burton without Ivan earlier in the season so it can be done. That was a horrible game, but I’d settle for that and another 1-0 win.

“I didn’t pay much attention to the results while we weren’t playing as I couldn’t affect anything, but they went pretty much as I expected.”

Wing-back Joe Ward will attempt to score for Posh against Burton for the fourth game in a row on Saturday.

LEAGUE ONE TABLE

P W D L GD Pts 33 18 7 8 25 61 32 16 13 3 16 61 33 17 8 8 7 59 33 16 10 7 19 58 32 16 8 8 16 56

Rotherham Coventry Wycombe Sunderland Portsmouth

Fleetwood 32 15107 12 55 Oxford 33 15 9 9 22 54 Ipswich 33 14109 13 52 Gillingham 33 12 14 7 9 50 Doncaster 32 13 9 10 15 48 Burton A 32 12 10 10 1 46 Bristol Rovers 32 11 9 12 -10 42 Blackpool 32 10 11 11 0 41 Accrington 33 10 9 14 -5 39 Lincoln 34 11 6 17 -3 39 Shrewsbury 32 9 11 12 -11 38 MK Dons 33 10 6 17 -10 36 Rochdale 32 9 6 17 -17 33 Wimbledon 33 7 10 16 -14 31 Tranmere 32 6 8 19 -26 26 Southend 32 3 7 22 -46 16 *Bolton 31 5 8 18 -39 11 *12 points deducted.

Key weekend fixtures: Friday Portsmouth v Rochdale.

Saturday Blackpool v Ipswich. Doncaster v Wycombe. Oxford v Southend. Rotherham v MK Dons. Tranmere v Fleetwood.

Sunday Coventry v Sunderland.

Joe Ward (left) after scoring the only goal of the game for Posh against Burton in November.