Matthew Etherington

Posh U21s welcome Birmingham City U21s to the idverde Training Ground on Tuesday afternoon.

Peterborough United U21s return to Professional Development League action on Tuesday afternoon (2pm) as they welcome Birmingham City U21s to the idverde Training Ground, with a handful of under 18s set to be involved in Matthew Etherington’s squad.

Forward Reuben Marshall, who netted twice in the under 18s 4-3 win over Birmingham City at the weekend, is to be involved alongside defender James Dornelly who has been in the under 21s squad on a few occasions this season. 

Harry Titchmarsh started the season off in the under 18s squad, but has featured regularly for Etherington’s side in the last few weeks and has impressed in recent performances, while defender János Bodnár has returned from international duty with the Hungarian U19 squad and will be involved in the game against The Blues.

The under 21s were held to a 1-1 draw against Barnsley last Tuesday and Etherington is confident results will follow once the players believe in themselves more.

Etherington said: “After the start we had against Barnsley, the performance was good for long periods of the game and it was disappointing we couldn’t win it in the end. However, the performances have been relatively good lately and we will look to continue that tomorrow against a tough Birmingham City side, who were a Category One academy side last year.”

“We will start winning games once the players have that belief and we have addressed that this week, gone through some stuff individually with them and as a team, with the overriding feeling from them is that they need to believe more. They have put in some good displays against top teams, so once that starts coming on a consistent basis, I’m confident that the results will follow.

“We will have quite a young squad tomorrow with five under-18 players involved, which will be brilliant for them in their development but also see them in a tougher environment."

The game gets underway at 2pm and updates will be available club’s official Twitter account.