It was honours even between Wimbledon and Peterborough last season and the two sides will be seeking maximum points for different reasons on Saturday.
With Glyn Hodges in charge of first-team matters, The Dons head to Peterborough aiming for a first win this season at a venue where we last won three years ago during that first campaign in League One after promotion.
Peterborough, currently in ninth place, will be aiming to get their promotion ambitions back on track after a display last time out at Doncaster that manager Darren Ferguson was far from happy with. Posh won 1-0 in the corresponding fixture versus Wimbledon last season. However, there was a significant victory by the same score-line for The Dons in the return match with Joe Pigott (pictured celebrating above) netting a winner from the penalty spot that proved vital in the battle to stay up.
Below are quotes from both managers, plus team news, and stats, ahead of the game.
Glyn Hodges
“Peterborough are a good side and they are a real threat. We know exactly how they play, we’ve been working on it, trying to combat that, but we know exactly how we want to play as well. It’s about putting those ideas across.
“I’ll be tweaking things, I’ll be looking at different things that I want to introduce, but whatever system or formation you play, it’s about the players. The players will make the formation work. For me, it’s about instilling a bit of confidence, getting them on the ball and playing a bit and enjoying the ball, as opposed to them sometimes getting a bit tense. I’m going to encourage them to slow down and use the ball a bit better. I want them to show ability on the ball and see where that takes us.
“We’ve got to put the performances in for them to back us. We still need the fans to be patient with us, confidence is key in any football team. With any mistakes, it’s about how you react and how you pick them up. Being a young team, sometimes it’s quite difficult for them. The older ones are used to it, they know they make mistakes. It’s just making sure that as a group and as a club we are together: we fight, we move forward, and we get out of this mess.”
If you missed Thursday's full interview with Glyn, you can watch it below.
Darren Ferguson
“If we give the same performance as we did against Doncaster we will get beaten, there’s no getting away from that. We need to make sure that we get back to a standard that I expect, that we had been showing on a consistent basis. Hopefully, we can get back to being more solid as a unit. There were far too many things that went wrong on Saturday and to a degree against Tranmere. The players are aware of that and we have to make sure that we get a win on Saturday and hopefully get back on another run.
“The players know themselves that they were way off it (at Doncaster). We try to analyse it in the best way we can, but our stats were well down. We need to get back to our level and I’m confident we will. So many players were below what they are capable of, certainly from what they had produced in the previous five or six games. It’s just an example that when you get a collective group that are off it, then you are going to lose games. It’s as simple as that. We’ve lost just once in seven and we’ve dominated a lot of games in terms of the score-line. We’ve got to remember the positives, it can’t always be about the negatives.
“Monday was very important to get things off our chests and move ahead to the next one, to start looking at what we’ve done well. For me as a manager, you can show video clips, talk about it, and you can really see the difference between both - when we do all right and when we don’t. I think it’s good to show the players that.”
Team News
On-loan Brentford striker Marcus Forss, who has been in prolific form since joining us, serves a one-match suspension after his sending off against Bristol Rovers last Saturday. Glyn Hodges said it’s likely to be too soon for Anthony Wordsworth to make the starting 11. The experienced midfielder returned as a substitute last weekend, but the midweek postponement of the London Senior Cup tie at Met Police meant that he missed out on more game-time.
Last time out
Doncaster Rovers 2-0 Peterborough
AFC Wimbledon 1-3 Bristol Rovers
Last time we met
AFC Wimbledon 1-0 Peterborough (12 March 2019)
An 87th minute winner from Joe Pigott earned a valuable midweek win under the lights at the Cherry Red Records Stadium. It was the middle victory in a three-game winning streak that really lifted hopes that Wimbledon could stay up last season and The Dons memorably finished the job on the final day at Bradford.
Click on the link below to watch highlights from that game.
Form guide (last six, starting with most recent)
Peterborough LDWWWW
AFC Wimbledon LLDLLD
Tickets
Our supporters can buy in advance or on the day to cheer on The Dons at Peterborough. See our previous article for more details.
iFollow
If you’re not attending the game, stay in touch by tuning into WDON commentary with Mikey T and Rob Cornell. Access is via our iFollow service.