It’s time for Peterborough United’s star names to step up

Ivan Toney helps George Cooper celebrate his goal for Posh at Doncaster. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

The match at the Kassam Stadium starts a run of friendlier looking fixtures for Posh who are now four points outside the play-off places.

Four of the next five League One matches for Posh are against teams in the bottom five. Not that Ferguson believes these games guarantee anything.

“They will all be hard matches,” Ferguson insisted. “We are at the stage of the season when many clubs are fighting for their lives and they are as hard to play against as teams battling for promotion.

Marcus Maddison in action for Posh at Doncaster. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

“Oxford away certainly falls into that category. They seem to play better at home against the better sides so we’re under no illusions about how tough a game this will be.

“It will be a good footballing match though. Karl Robinson is obviously a manager I know well and he always insists his teams play passing football and I am the same.

“Obviously there are things we must improve and keeping 11 men on the field would be a good start.

“But we have enough matchwinners in our side to make sure we can collect three points in any League One match.

Joe Ward in action for Posh at Doncaster. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

“I’d forgotten how good Marcus Maddison is for a start. He looked very lively at Doncaster last weekend, but when we went down to 10 men it got harder to get the ball to him.

“Lee Tomlin is available again on Saturday which is big for us. He looked sharp in an under 23 match last week and we have got some much needed fitness into him in the last couple of weeks.

“Those two players can cause any team problems and I was pleased with George Cooper last week, He worked hard and he clearly has a goal in him.

“If our forward players play to their best in the remaining 14 games we will win plenty of them.”

Posh received a boost on the injury front this week when winger Joe Ward, who left the Doncaster match on crutches, was given the all-clear to resume training today (February 14).

Left-back Dan Lafferty should also be available after recovering from a hamstring problem. He will replace Tyler Denton who is suspended.

Central defended Ryan Tafazolli is expected to replace Rhys Bennett.

Deadline day signing Josh Knight could also make his Posh debut.