The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
No fear before biggest games
Posh players preparing for the biggest games of their careers are not short of confidence.
Attacking players Malik Mothersille and Joel Randall get their first taste of play-off football in Saturday’s League One semi-final first leg at Oxford United (7.45pm).
The second leg will follow at the Weston Homes Stadium on Wednesday, May 8 (8pm) with both games to be screened live on Sky Sports. The ties are expected to attract sell-out crowds.
The winners will then play a Wembley final against either Barnsley or Bolton on Saturday, May 18.
And Mothersille, who scored twice in a 3-3 home draw with Bolton last weekend to make it three goals in his last four matches, has no doubts Posh are capable of going all the way.
The 20 year-old former Chelsea Academy striker has already brushed aside the relevance of the recent 5-0 drubbing at the Kassam Stadium.
“We’re confident," Mothersille stated. “We definitely know we’re the best team.
"We know some of our results haven’t shown that, but we’re confident in our ability so we’re excited.
"Games like these are why we all play football.
“Oxford probably wanted to play us again hoping it will be a repeat of what happened recently, but that was a one-off.
"When we get it right, nobody can stop us as we’ve shown several times in big games this season.
"It’s been the perfect time for me to find my form as we’ve got the biggest games of the season coming up.
“I’m loving playing in this team. The type of play just suits me. The gaffer has full trust in me and the players are amazing.
"I’ve been working hard on my game as I just want to help the club and my teammates be successful.”
Randall claimed a goal and an assist in the game with Bolton. He’s now scored in back-to-back League One matches to suggest he’s peaking at a good time.
"If we bring the best version of ourselves into the play-offs we should be okay,” Randall insisted.
“But it’s never that easy with everything that surrounds these games. There’s a lot of pressure for a start, but we always think positively.
“It should be a good thing to have received the test we had at Oxford recently. When we knew we were playing them again, the players soon started talking about what we need to do to beat them this time and we will go there with confidence.
"We treated the Bolton game as an important one as we could play them in the play-off final and we wanted to put a marker down and show them we are a serious team.”
Posh finished just one place and seven points ahead of Oxford in League One.
Posh scored 10 more goals (89-79), but conceded five more (61-56).
Oxford’s top scorer in League One matches was Mark Harris with 15, one more than Posh leading scorer Ephron Mason-Clark.
Mothersille won the Posh goal-of-the-season prize for his strike at Blackpool in a EFL Trophy semi-final.
Last Saturday was the first time he’d scored twice in a Football League match.