Is it play-offs for Peterborough United? – Opinion 

Whilst the Posh have booked a place at Wembley in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy final in April, will the Cambridgeshire side have to play in the capital again if they want to play in the Championship next season?  

Darren Ferguson’s men currently sit in 6th place, occupying the final play-off spot in League One, 16 points off leaders Portsmouth. Flashback to less than a month ago, and after 27 games, the Posh held the second spot, only a point off the leaders with a game in hand. So where has it all gone wrong?  

Poor form: 

Up until February, Ferguson’s men were riding high on a 12-game unbeaten run, starting after a defeat at Wigan in early November, before being ended by the same opposition in a 3-2 defeat at London Road. 

A potential blip, especially for a side that had only lost once at home before defeat against the Latics. But the last five results in League One have seen four defeats against Wigan, Exeter, Wycombe, and fellow play-off hopefuls Blackpool, with their only point coming in a 0-0 draw against Lincoln City.  

Only bottom side Carlisle United have a worse record in the last five games than posh, who have seen their grip on the automatic promotion places dramatically loosen. Derby County, Bolton Wanderers and Portsmouth have all kept strong form during this period and are now ten points clear of the Cambridgeshire side.  

Over-achieving? 

Peterborough fans have seen a new, re-vamped, younger side in comparison to the one that finished last season, losing out in the semi-finals of the playoffs to eventual winners Sheffield Wednesday.  

Some were not sure if the posh would even retain a place in the play-off places, expecting a mid-table finish due to the age of the squad. So, the squad could be said to have been over-achieving; fighting for the top spot in the division. 

The average age of the starting eleven has seen it be as low as 22.5 years old (vs Wigan, Feb 3), with only Reading posting a younger average XI (22.4), back in August against Cheltenham Town.  

Whilst saying that the young side has feared nobody. They have been scoring goals for fun, having the highest XG in the league, along with being the highest goal scorers in the league too. This is not what most of the Peterborough faithful expected when the season began in August.  

Too little too late? 

The recent run of bad form has left Ferguson with plenty to do within the final 14 games of the season. They trail the automatic promotion places by 10 points and need to find a way of gaining ground on the teams above them.  

The next five games are crucial for the chances that posh have. They face sides below them until March 16th when they entertain Portsmouth. On that note, four out of their next six games in League One are all at home at the Weston Homes Stadium, a place they have only lost at three times this season.  

A Cambridgeshire Derby awaits posh next, and a win over rivals Cambridge United, combined with the Bristol Street Motors success in midweek, can eliminate the negative feeling currently felt by the posh faithful and set the side on another run of form needed to challenge the automatic promotion places.  

History could suggest that Peterborough could do it, as they only snuck into the playoffs on the last day of the season, with a win at Barnsley, and Derby’s failure to win at Sheffield Wednesday.  

History could repeat itself as after 33 games last season, Ferguson’s men were 10 points behind 6th placed Derby, who were occupying the play-off spots. As we know, Derby holds the final automatic promotion spot this season and are 10 points ahead of Peterborough after 32 games this season.  

Is it written in the stars?… 

Can Peterborough find the form to get themselves back into the top two? Or will they even reach the play-offs, as the chasing pack closes in?