This Week's Opposition: Peterborough United

A brace from Kusini Yengi made sure the Blues got back to winning ways on Tuesday night with a crucial 3 points against Burton Albion. Next up is a trip to a side in red hot form, Peterborough United.

John Mousinho’s side have now reached 80 points for the season, the first time Portsmouth have reached this tally since the 2018/19 campaign.

Back on the road again this weekend, the Blues head up to the Weston Homes Stadium to take on Play-Off occupiers Peterborough United

Let's dive into The Posh now… 

MANAGER

Scottish manager and former player Darren Ferguson is the man in the dugout.

As a player, Ferguson was managed at Manchester United by his father, Sir Alex Ferguson and he went on to win the Premier League and the FA Charity Shield in 1993 before going on to spend most of his senior career at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Wrexham in the lower divisions of English football.

The 52-year-old started his managerial career as a player-manager of then League Two outfit Peterborough in January 2007 and 2 successive promotions saw him guide the club to Championship for the first time in 17 seasons.

He moved on to Preston North End before returning to Peterborough, where he took the club to the League One Play-Off final and won promotion back to the Championship. After 2 seasons, Ferguson’s side were relegated back to League One again.

Ferguson was appointed as manager of Doncaster Rovers, where he would spend 3 years before returning for a 3rd spell in charge of The Posh, who Ferguson once again led back to the Championship for a 3rd time.

In January 2023, following the dismissal of Grant McCann, Ferguson returned for his 4th stint as manager of Peterborough and come the end of that season, the side were defeated on penalties by Sheffield Wednesday in a dramatic Play-Off Semi-Final encounter with The Owls.

Ferguson signed a new 3-year contract with the club and is bidding to achieve promotion to the 2nd tier for an impressive 4th time with the same club.

ONE TO WATCH

Our own to watch out for on this occasion is Kwame Poku.

Poku made his first senior appearance for Worthing and after a successful trial in May 2019, he then signed for Colchester United.

He made his debut for the club in a 3-2 EFL Trophy win over Gillingham and scored his first professional goal in September 2019 during a 2-1 victory against Leyton Orient.

Poku went on to sign a 4-year contract with Peterborough United in August 2021 and scored his first goal for The Posh over a year later in a 3-2 win over MK Dons.

The right winger was also called up to the Ghanaian National Team for the first time for their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, making his debut in the 79th minute as a substitute.

Scoring 11 goals and making 8 assists so far this campaign, including a strike in the midweek win over Stevenage, Poku wears the number 11 shirt.

TOP SCORER

The current top goalscorer for The Posh is left winger Ephron Mason-Clark.

Mason-Clarke started his senior career at Barnet after working his way up through the youth side. He spent over 6 years with The Bees, making 163 appearances and scoring 19 goals.

In August 2022, Mason-Clark signed for Peterborough United on a 3-year contract despite interest from Danny Cowley’s Portsmouth.

In his 1st season at the club, he scored 5 goals across all competitions.

In the recent January transfer window, Mason-Clark signed for Coventry City on a 4-year deal, however immediately returned back to Peterborough on loan until the end of the season.

The Posh’s number 10 is the 8th top goalscorer in the league having bagged 13 league goals so far.

CURRENT FORM

Darren Ferguson’s side currently sit in 4th position, 9 points behind Pompey at the top having played 1 game fewer.

Wednesday night’s 3-1 victory over Stevenage at the Weston Homes Stadium saw The Posh leapfrog Barnsley and ensure they are now just 4 points behind 2nd place Derby County with a game in hand.

Peterborough are in quite some form at the moment and head into this weekend’s meeting with the Blues off the back of 5 consecutive league victories - 6 wins if you include the 3-0 scoreline recorded at Blackpool in the EFL Trophy Semi-Final last month too.

So far this campaign, The Posh have accumulated 37 points from 18 games on home soil as well as 34 points on the road too.

The last time these 2 teams met was at Fratton Park back at the beginning of September. On that day, the Blues came out on top with a 3-1 league victory despite even going down to 10 men for the final few minutes of the game following the dismissal of Joe Morrell.

Can Pompey complete the double over The Posh and make it 12 games without defeat?

All of the unmissable action can be heard right here on Express FM when Pompey Live returns this Saturday (March 16th) afternoon at 2pm.

Kick-off: 3pm!