Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson insists his side won’t rest on their laurels and will continue to attack in their playoff second leg tomorrow night away at Sheffield Wednesday, in comments given to the Peterborough Telegraph.
Darren Ferguson’s confident side blew The Owls away in the first leg at the Weston Homes Community Stadium last Friday night, winning 4-0 with four different goal-scorers contributing for Posh on a torrid trip down to Cambridgeshire for Darren Moore and co.
Some might have expected the four-time Peterborough manager to opt for a defence first approach at Hillsborough, but it seems that the attacking mentality that saw Posh win convincingly under the floodlights late last week will be the way forward again.
Posh had garnered a reputation in the regular League One campaign for occasionally blowing teams away with their attacking arsenal, winning 5-2 away at Burton Albion in mid March sticking out whilst Dino Maamria’s side were on a mini resurgence alongside beating eventual promotion winners Plymouth Argyle by the same scoreline a few weeks prior at home.
Darren Ferguson will hope and pray that this bold strategy pays off and doesn’t play into the hands of Darren Moore’s Owls, Sheffield Wednesday still attempting to pull off one of the biggest EFL comebacks in history at Hillsborough to get back into the contest.
Sheffield Wednesday’s Disappointing End To The Season
Sheffield Wednesday will have been disappointed with how their regular third tier campaign petered out, finishing 3rd in the division on 96 points – two points off 2nd placed Ipswich Town.
A run of poor results that started in March eventually saw Darren Moore’s men fall short of the automatic promotion pack, losing 1-0 away to Forest Green at the end of the month a miserable day out for the passionate Owls’ away fans.
Winning the final four matches of the regular season, hope and optimism was back amongst even the most pessimistic Wednesday supporters for a successful playoff campaign to clinch promotion back to the Championship.
Yet, at full-time in Cambridgeshire after the first leg, the scenes were toxic as the likes of Barry Bannan and Will Vaulks in yellow trudged off the pitch to audible discontent.
Darren Ferguson Back At Posh… Again
Darren Ferguson’s return back to Peterborough United was met with some comical responses on social media, the 51-year-old back in the Weston Homes dugout for the fourth time in his managerial career.
He’s proven to be a success once more at Posh, winning 14 of the 23 games he’s taken charge of since his highly publicised return – the barnstorming 4-0 first leg victory over The Owls included.
The Scottish manager holds a special connection to the blue and white half of Cambridgeshire, and will be hoping his Posh side can finish the job off at Hillsborough to then travel to Wembley for a very real chance at Championship football next season.
If he was to add another promotion to his managerial resume, it would be his fifth overall promotion with four of those coming at Peterborough United.
What Has Darren Ferguson Said?
Speaking to the Peterborough Telegraph in the build-up before Posh travel up to Sheffield Wednesday for the second leg, Darren Ferguson wants a positive display from his players at Hillsborough despite the 4-0 aggregate scoreline.
He said: “Our mindset tomorrow will be to try and get a positive result. We will try and win the game. Taking care of one match at a time has been a consistent message from me to the players and if we get it right one more time and beat Sheffield Wednesday, we will be at Wembley.
“It’s an unusual one as we obviously start the game 4-0 ahead, but the best way to quieten what will be a big home crowd is get on the front foot and score the first goal. Going there to defend all game would not suit us at all.”
The 51-year-old boss also wants his players to savour the occasion, instead of freezing away from home comforts.
He said: “This match is a completely different prospect. It’s Hillsborough with 30,000 fans inside.
“We need to blank all that out, play the game we want to play and not the game they want to play, and hopefully we can get the crowd frustrated.”
Writer’s View
The second leg tomorrow evening will be an intriguing contest, will Peterborough United come out of the traps from minute one and silence the Wednesday faithful or will Darren Moore’s men make a contest of it?
It’s commendable that Darren Ferguson isn’t looking to change things up too drastically, he knows his team inside out since his return and how to get the best of them.
With Darren Moore also, you assume, going to set his side up to go out all attack, it could rain goals at Hillsborough tomorrow night in a classic playoff contest.
