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Wanderers pulled out all the stops to sign Joel Randall in the summer but on Saturday they will be doing their level best to stop him in his tracks at the Toughsheet.
Part of League One’s most prolific attack, alongside Kwame Poku, Malik Mothersille and Ricky-Jade Jones, the 24-year-old was one of the top names on Ian Evatt’s summer shopping list as he looked to freshen up his squad in July.
Bolton gradually upped the ante trying to convince Posh owner Darragh MacAnthony into a sale, with some sources claiming the highest bid reached a whopping £2million.
Wanderers maintained a dignified silence throughout the negotiations, but regular commentaries from elsewhere ensured the deal was headline news, and the player eventually signed a new three-year contract at London Road to become one of the highest-paid players at the club.
Since then he has scored four goals – two against Shrewsbury and another brace in Tuesday night’s 5-1 hammering of Blackpool – underlining why Evatt was keen to add him to his attack.
“He’s a player we admire and like, and clearly we wanted to sign him,” said Evatt in his pre-match press conference.
“We offered an awful lot of money for a player at this level and it wasn’t accepted so we moved on, they moved on, and that’s it, really.”
Peterborough hold the confusing distinction of having League One’s most prolific attack and their most porous defence.
Darren Ferguson’s side have suffered injuries tot their first-choice defenders, so have had to double-down on their attacking philosophy to gain points in the last few weeks.
Evatt will revert to the more familiar attacking approach after preaching caution against Birmingham in midweek but he has reminded his players that discipline is important, even when they have possession, such is Peterborough’s threat on the counter.
“They are an extremely dangerous team and their ethos for many years has been to out-score the opposition,” he said. “They are always free-scoring so our defenders know what they are going into.
“Take Birmingham and ourselves out of the equation I think they have the best attacking players in the league and we have to be ready for it.
“They have an incredible amount of speed, in particular in transition and in turnovers, we have to make sure our control positions and lock-out is right. When we have the ball and even we are attacking we have to think danger and see danger.
“If they are on a go-day and in form, like they were against Blackpool on Tuesday, then they can hurt you.
“But if we can manage to keep those four players quiet, which is easier said than done, it gives us a great opportunity to win the game.
“We have a decent record against them, that’s fair to say, and we will take the game to them as well. It will be a very different type of game to the one we had at Birmingham.”
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