It's almost becoming repetitive but again Burnley return home after winning on their travels, this time with a 2-0 win at Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, our eighth league win away from home this season.
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| Ross Wallace is expected to start |
It's taken us up to ninth in the table but significantly now we are only two points behind the play off positions. Should we win today, and we really do need to start winning at home, we will go up at least one place in the table with Reading's game at Doncaster having been called off after it had previously been given the go ahead.
It's been an amazing turnaround from a year ago. Then we had just three points less than we have now but we'd won eight at home, compared to five this season, but had only had two wins on the road at Barnsley and Portsmouth.
The 29th game last season was at home against Norwich and the previous win had been away to a team managed by former Burnley boss Steve Cotterill. Hopefully that will be a good omen because if we are to get up into that top six we really do have to start taking the points at Turf Moor.
It has improved to be fair. We've won seven points from the last three home games with the two dropped against a Derby side who weren't particularly interested in making a game of it. I don't see Peterborough playing like that this afternoon.
Keith Treacy is the only doubt for Eddie Howe other than his long term injury victims. He came off injured at Nottingham Forest having been caught by a Forest player as he cleared the ball from inside his own box.
Ross Wallace came on for him then and I think he'll start as will Josh McQuoid in a team that should be: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Ben Mee, Ross Wallace, Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Josh McQuoid, Charlie Austin, Jay Rodriguez. Subs from: Brian Jensen, Andre Amougou, Brian Easton, Marvin Bartley, Keith Treacy, Danny Ings, Zavon Hines.
I've included Danny Ings in the list of potential subs. At some stage soon he will definitely come into the reckoning.
Our Opponents - Peterborough United
Peterborough were promoted to the Championship in 2009 but went straight back down again. A year later they came back and are doing so much better this time round.
They started well and at one point in October reached seventh place in the table. but a disappointing run of late has seen them drop to 17th with 33 points from their 28 games.
It does seem as though their fans, and they had just over 7,500 at their home game last Saturday, have been showing their frustration with manager Darren Ferguson telling them this week that this return is a good one for them having just come up.
They have won three times on the road. Those wins came at Portsmouth, Bristol City and most recently at Nottingham Forest where they recorded a 1-0 win on Boxing Day.
This Peterborough team does score goals. They've not been as prolific recently but they have scored no fewer than 45 league goals this season. That's one more than current league leaders West Ham and only Southampton have scored more.
On the reverse of that is their defensive record. The 47 goals they have conceded is more than any other club in the league.
The goal threat comes from various players. Set piece expert Grant McCann has scored 8 of those goals with Emile Sinclair having got 7 including both in their 2-1 win against us in September.
One player who is available this afternoon is defender Ryan Bennett. He was sold to Norwich in midweek for £3 million but returned immediately on loan until the end of the season. Only long term injury victims Dave Hibbert and Joe Day are unavailable and Peterborough expect to have Daniel Cairns back after he was rested for the last two games.
Last time out they lost 3-0 at home to Portsmouth and for that game they lined up: Joe Lewis, Craig Alcock, Gabriel Zakuani, Ryan Bennett, Tommy Rowe, Grant McCann, Lee Frecklington, Joe Newell, Lee Tomlin, George Boyd, Paul Taylor. Subs: Paul Jones, Ryan Tunnicliffe, David Ball, Mark Little, Emile Sinclair.
Last Time They Were Here
We've no details of our last home game against Peterborough United, but it was in the 1996/97 season and a game we won 5-0 courtesy of a hat trick from Paul Barnes and further goals from Andy Cooke and Damien Matthew.
Previous Games against Peterborough United
| Last 20 Years | |||||
| Season | Comp | Ven | Res | Att | Scorers |
| 1995/96 | Division 2 | a | 2-0 | 4,737 | McDonald, Swan |
| h | 2-1 | 8,393 | Joyce, Swan | ||
| 1996/97 | Division 2 | a | 2-3 | 5,283 | Barnes, Matthew |
| h | 5-0 | 8,646 | Barnes(3), Cooke, Matthew | ||
| 2011/12 | Championship | a | 1-2 | 7,901 | Treacy |
Click HERE to see all previous results against Peterborough United