Peterborough United vs Stoke City

A look ahead to Saturday’s Sky Bet Championship meeting with Stoke City.

Peterborough United welcome Michael O’Neill’s Stoke City side to the Weston Homes Stadium in Sky Bet Championship action on Saturday afternoon looking to build on Tuesday night’s creditable 1-1 draw at promotion contenders AFC Bournemouth.

The Potters drew 1-1 with Barnsley on Tuesday night with Lewis Baker securing a point in the 95th minute of the fixture at Oakwell. Stoke will still feel that a late run could see them move into the play-off shake-up come the end of the season.

Stoke won 2-0 in the reverse fixture at the bet365.stadium with Tyrese Campbell and Mario Vrancic bagging the two goals, while Sam Surridge was sent-off.

TEAM NEWS

Goalkeeper Steven Benda is set to miss three games with a back injury after a scan revealed the damage sustained during the Emirates FA Cup fifth round tie with Manchester City. It was a challenge by midfielder Fernandinho that led to the injury. Dai Cornell is expected to continue between the sticks.

Dan Butler (ankle) is definitely out but Jack Taylor suffered no reaction to his first start of the year at the Vitality Stadium. Injury-plagued Stoke City linchpin Nick Powell has been ruled out for six more weeks with a new quad muscle injury.

The influential playmaker limped out of Stoke's 1-0 home defeat by Blackpool on Saturday - and boss Michael O'Neill confirmed this latest blow after Tuesday's 1-1 draw at lowly Barnsley.

FROM THE GAFFER

“Michael O’Neill has assembled a really strong squad at Stoke, they have good players in the line-up, good players on the bench and good players that are not even in the 18. We know that regardless of the form they are currently in, they will be a difficult test for us, but in this league, any team can beat any other, it is about reaching the standards that you set. We go into it on the back of a point at Bournemouth and the lads are in a good place,” Grant McCann said.

FROM THE OPPOSITION

“Peterborough have gone to a good team on Tuesday and got a point. They have tried to play, they want to play football, they have good footballers in the team. I felt they played very well when they came to our place, but they lost 2-0 and they have conceded a lot of goals, which makes it difficult to win football matches. We are ready for a tough game,” Michael O’Neill said.

TICKET NEWS

Tickets are on sale at www.theposhtickets.com and via the Weston Homes Stadium Box Office. Stoke City have sold 2,200 tickets so far and will occupy the Deskgo Stand.

POSH+

Our Sky Bet Championship match against Stoke City at the Weston Homes Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 3pm) will unfortunately only be available for live streaming via Posh+ in dark market territories.

As Pitch International are broadcasting the match live, it cannot be streamed in the UK and Ireland or any other country where the EFL has broadcasting agreements in place.

MAN IN THE MIDDLE

Geoff Eltringham is the match referee.

Jonson Clarke-Harris netted a late equaliser to earn Posh a share of the spoils against Stoke City.

Jonson Clarke-Harris and penalties in injury time go together like Ant and Dec and the powerful front man as at it again as his spot-kick, just as the clock ticked over the 90-minute mark, earned a 2-2 draw with Stoke City at the Weston Homes Stadium.

It was Clarke-Harris who levelled in the first half after Jacob Brown’s opener for the visitors while Stoke netted a penalty of their own after Josh Knight was harshly adjudged to have handled in the box allowing Lewis Baker to convert from the spot. Clarke-Harris’ penalty earned Posh their second point of the week ahead of Wednesday night’s clash with Swansea City.

Dai Cornell produced a fine fingertip save to divert a Lewis Baker effort onto the post on eight minutes before Jacob Brown glanced a header wide of the target as the team from the Potteries made a lively start in the sunshine at the Weston Homes Stadium.

The visitors opened the scoring on 26 minutes, the ball was played into the right hand channel and Jacob BROWN took a touch before firing low across Cornell and into the bottom corner. Posh drew themselves level on 32 minutes and it was a sublime finish from Jonson CLARKE-HARRIS who collected a lay-off and curled a fine effort past Bonham and into the corner.

Kent nodded a Burrows free-kick over the top on 35 minutes after Clarke-Harris was upended by the experienced Joe Allen. Allen was cautioned in first half stoppage time for a foul on Burrows. Stoke made a change at the interval with former Sunderland front man Josh Maja introduced for Duhaney.

Thompson fired a presentable opportunity over the bar on 56 minutes as Stoke nearly caught Posh cold on the counter-attack. Grant McCann made a change ten minutes later with Ricky-Jade Jones replacing Marriott in attack.

Goalkeeper Bonham had a lucky escape midway through the second half as he dropped a Ward centre onto the back of Clarke-Harris, but it dropped wide of the target. Bali Mumba replaced Burrows as McCann made his second change on 70 minutes.

An acrobatic overhead kick from Taylor was fairly routine for Bonham as Posh pushed for a second goal. Josh Tymon cracked a left-foot drive wide at the other end after Posh failed to clear a right-wing centre.

On 82 minutes, the visitors got their noses in front as the referee spotted a handball in the box as a cross popped up and hit Knight on the hand. Lewis BAKER stepped up and sent Cornell the wrong way from the spot.

Posh found a leveller as the game entered five minutes of added time, Jones felled in the box by Horwood-Bellis after a lively run and CLARKE-HARRIS coolly sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot.

Timeline

Match stats

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