Trophy final 'least important' game for Ferguson

Darren Ferguson is in his fourth spell as Peterborough United manager

Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson says he does not want to hear any talk about Wembley despite their improved form in League One.

Defending champions Posh will return to the national stadium on 13 April to take on Birmingham City in the Vertu Trophy final, 12 months on from beating Wycombe Wanderers there.

But Ferguson insists he is only concerned about the league situation, even though they are nine points clear of the League One relegation places following Saturday's 3-0 win against Charlton Athletic.

"The motivation for me is staying in the league," Ferguson told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

"The Wembley game is the least important of the season, I'm not interested in it at all. I will be on the day, but only on the day, and we've got to make sure we're in a very good position by the time we get to Wembley.

"If we do that, then we can enjoy it. I don't want to hear any talk about it because we have league games that are far more important than that game."

Peterborough have away league games against Reading and Crawley Town, followed by home fixtures against Northampton Town and Birmingham before taking on Blues again at Wembley.

And Ferguson is looking to continue the seven-match unbeaten run which has lifted his side up to 15th in the table.

The win over fourth-placed Charlton was one of their best of the season.

"We did the basics right, defended well, they had a lot of set-pieces - that's a real threat (for them) - and we dealt with it," said Ferguson.

"Our goalkeeper (Jed Steer) was outstanding, he caught so many crosses and started so many counter-attacks.

"Going forward, we missed four unbelievable chances at 2-0, clear-cut chances, but once we got the third, we got through it quite comfortably."

He continued: "It was an important performance - I felt it coming and if we got things right in possession, which we did a lot of work on because they are so aggressive, and beat the press, we'd have too much pace for them and that's how it turned out."

Having guided Posh to the play-offs in the last two seasons, Ferguson believes there is still work to do to secure their third-tier status for 2025-26.

"It's about consistency now," he added.

"The players now know if they get to a certain level of performance - and if you look at the teams we've played (recently) - Huddersfield, Wrexham, Charlton, Wycombe - they're all in the top six and we haven't lost to any of them. There's no excuses now."