Forest Green Rovers’ Duncan Ferguson has his side playing better football but has the challenege of facing football league luminary Darren Ferguson at the New Lawn.
The 51-year-old was struck by the heartbreak of League One football in his first game, back-to-back goals beyond the ninetieth minute saw the Green Devils lose all three points.
This Saturday, Ferguson makes his home debut as Peterborough United make the journey to the New Lawn. The Posh have won three of their last four and seek a place in the playoffs, where they currently sit one place away from.
Meanwhile Duncan’s Rovers are without a win in four and sit four points off safety at the foot of the Sky Bet League One table.
Despite one of the better performing sides coming to town, Duncan is far from phased – “I’m not looking at the table, we know they are better than us, but it is about being better than them on the day.
“Every team we play is going to be the favourite, we have to get some points on the board.”
Although the once caretaker manager at Everton is refraining from glancing at the table, he is aware of the circumstnaces.
“We are the worst team in the league aren’t we, that is where we are.”
Following the gut-wrenching fashion of their defeat at the hands of Shrewsbury, the Rovers manager gave an honest assessment of the result; “We were incredibly unlucky on Saturday, I thought we should have been two, three nil up.
“We had three points at 94 minutes and none at 98 minutes, it was a tough one for the lads and they felt it.”
As for the visitors, new managers is a common occurence, Darren Ferguson has faced three upstarts in recent fixtures; Dean Holden (Charlton Athletic), Mark Jackson (MK Dons) and John Mousinho (Portsmouth).
Heading into the clash, the Posh manager spilled his take on this weekend’s encounter.
“It’s time to put our foot down. We can’t afford to slow down. We still have ground to make up on teams and there are plenty of other teams chasing the same prize as us.
“We should have gained plenty of confidence from the win and performance though.”
From their time together in the Scotland U21’s setup, Darren has a neat understanding of his opposing manager’s reputation – “He’s not a man to get on the wrong side of, something I’ve already told my staff!
“Duncan will no doubt have been very unhappy, but knowing him it will make him more determined to make amends against us.
“He will have the fans and the players pumped up and fighting.”
A win will take will enable Peterborough a chance to make ground on those above, as of now, they could equal fifth placed Bolton Wanderers points tally if they win their three games in hand.
Rovers need to kickstart their turnaround sooner rather than later as those above them have played less games in addition to a four point advantage.
It is shaping up to be a lively encounter, West versus East, Duncan versus Darren, Ferguson versus Ferguson – all will be settled on Saturday.
