The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Five wins would take Fergie’s men into sixth
Darren Ferguson believes Posh will have to win ‘four, maybe five’ of their remaining seven League One matches to have a chance of reaching the League One play-offs.
Posh start playing catch-up on sixth-placed Doncaster on Saturday when improving Gillingham visit the ABAX Stadium.
Posh will seek back-toback League One wins for the first time since October having won their last match 2-0 at home to struggling Southend on March 23.
Posh lost ground on Doncaster last weekend as they didn’t have a fixture. Ferguson used the opportunity to watch Gillingham’s 1-1 home draw with relegation-threatened Rochdale.
“Gillingham have threats, there is no doubt about that,” Ferguson said. “Their front three of Tom Eaves, Graeme Burke and Brandon Hanlon look a real handful.
“We will have to defend as well as we did against Southend to get the result we want.
“The game itself was very scrappy and very stop-start, but you could still see Gillingham are a team in pretty good form and with plenty of confidence.
“They’ve been doing well away from home in particular. The 2-2 draw at Luton recently was a standout result, while they also won well at Wimbledon. It will be a tough game, but a good one.
“It’s obvious what we have to do between now and the end of the season. If we string a consistent run of positive results together we can finish sixth.
“Doncaster have won twice since we last played, but our own aims haven’t changed because of those results. We were always going to have to win four, maybe five games to finish in the play-offs.
“I don’t want to put an actual figure on what we need, but 72 points is usually the number required for the playoffs and we have 58 at the moment.
“We can’t get hung-up on targets though. We have to concentrate on beating Gillingham and then get ready for some equally tough games away from home.”
Ferguson has a fully fit squad to pick from as centrebacks Rhys Bennett and Josh Knight both came through 45 minute run-outs for Posh reserves in a 1-1 Central League draw with Plymouth on Tuesday.
Knight hadn’t played since damaging ankle ligaments early into his Posh debut at Oxford on February 16. Bennett missed the Southend game because of a groin problem.
Winger Siriki Dembele played for an hour against Plymouth as he continued his recovery from an ankle injury. Dembele has a chance of starting against Gillingham, possibly ahead of Joe Ward.
Ferguson is unlikely to make other changes even though prolific striker Matty Stevens scored the late equaliser for the reserves in a 1-1 draw with Plymouth.