A look ahead to Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup fourth round tie.
Peterborough United welcome fellow Sky Bet Championship side Queens Park Rangers to the Weston Homes Stadium on Saturday (3pm) for an Emirates FA Cup fourth round fixture with Darren Ferguson’s men looking to get into the fifth round of the competition for the first time since 1986.
Posh go into the fixture on the back of a 2-0 defeat to Sheffield United, while the Hoops, who are fighting for automatic promotion to the Premier League, were 4-0 winners over strugglers Reading.
TEAM NEWS
Posh are without the services of on-loan striker Callum Morton, who is cup-tied, having played in this competition for Fleetwood Town earlier in the campaign. Dan Butler (ankle) is out for the rest of the season, while Harrison Burrows faces between 7-10 days on the sidelines with a foot problem.
Ollie Norburn returns to the squad following a dead leg, while defender Mark Beevers has also been declared fit after a slight calf injury. Jack Taylor is facing a spell on the sidelines with a hamstring injury, but boss Ferguson is hopeful he won’t be on the treatment table for a lengthy period of time.
QPR swooped for Newcastle United midfielder Jeff Hendrick on transfer deadline day and he is expected to go straight into Mark Warburton’s squad for the clash at the Weston Homes Stadium. Ilias Chair didn’t feature in the win over Reading, as he has been away with his country at the African Cup of Nations.
Defender Dion Sanderson, on-loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, is pushing for a start while the experienced front man Charlie Austin could be given the nod in attack with plenty of important Championship fixtures coming thick and fast for the visitors.
FROM THE MANAGER
“QPR are a good side, we saw that in the game between the two sides earlier in the season, but we have beaten them before and that will give us confidence. It has been a challenging month, there is no getting away from that, but we have a break from the pressures of the league and we want to go as far as we can in this competition. It should be a good atmosphere, they have sold out their end and our sales are good, so hopefully it will be a really good occasion,” Darren Ferguson said.
FROM THE OPPOSITION
“We want to keep things going. We’ll go into it with a strong team, I’d imagine, and we’re going there to win the game. There is no point in trying to play to lose. What is the point in that?
“We went to Peterborough and lost late on earlier in the season, so there’s a demon there that we want to put right. We’ll treat it like every other game,” QPR midfielder Sam Field said this week.
TICKET NEWS
QPR sold out their entire allocation of just under 4,000 earlier this week and a big crowd is expected with encouraging home sales. QPR fans will occupy the Deskgo Stand as well as the normal away section of the North Stand. Tickets are on sale at www.theposhtickets.com and via the Weston Homes Stadium Box Office.
COMPETITION RULES
The game must be played to a finish with extra time and penalties if required. Both sides can name nine substitutes with five permitted to be used.
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
The match referee is David Webb.