The 3-0 midweek trouncing at AFC Bournemouth would have served to bring Bristol Rovers back to earth after the two very solid performances in beating Hereford 6-1 and drawing 2-2 at Leeds.

Meanwhile after just four games Darren Ferguson's Peterborough United team sit in 20th spot in the Division One table. Three single goal defeats would not be what Ferguson wanted although the 3-0 victory over Leyton Orient would have been much more to his liking.

There is the possibility that Ferguson Junior will have to field a makeshift centre-back partnership on Saturday. Captain Craig Morgan is away on international duty with Wales and veteran Chris Westwood is struggling with a hamstring injury. Kieran Charnock is transfer-listed and therefore unlikely to be considered leaving Shane Blackett as the only recognised central defender available for a match to be screened live on Sky Sports.

If Westwood fails to recover in time, Ferguson is likely to press gang midfielder Charlie Lee into defensive duties. New centre-half Gaby Zakuani does not formally sign until next week. Ferguson said: "Chris Westwood is touch and go for Saturday and it's a shame Gaby isn't here because I am sure he will be a great signing for us.

"I have heard nothing but good reports about him and we've done very well to get a player who once cost a million to drop down two divisions to play for us. He will sign for a month when he returns from international duty. The plan is that he takes a good look at us, likes what he sees and joins us permanently.

Fulham defender the 22 year-old Zakuani spent most of last season on loan at Stoke City.

"He's a big, strong player who would fit perfectly with us. He's 6ft tall, but has a fantastic spring and he's a real athlete. Stoke manager Tony Pulis speaks very highly of him so it would be a great signing for us."

"A fee has been agreed with Fulham, but it isn't anywhere near the million pounds they paid for him! As for this weekend I may have to play Charlie at centre-half which isn't a problem as he played most of his Spurs career as a defender."

Lee's last outing as a centre-back wasn't a roaring success as Posh went down to a shock 2-0 defeat at Bury last year.

Rovers were unbeaten in their previous six league visits to London Road, although that sequence does contain four draws. United last home win over Rovers was a 4-1 thrashing on 2nd September 1967, after the game was deadlocked at 0-0 at half-time. It's ironic that the sequence was broken by another 4-1 thrashing.

Last season Rovers gained revenge for an early season home defeat, by winning 2-1 in the Midlands, after Junior Agogo was sent off shortly after Richard Walker's goal gave the Gas a 2-0 lead. In the game at the Mem, Posh scored two early goals had Dean Holden sent off, Rovers pulled back the two goals and then conspired to allow Richard Logan to score a 73rd minute winner. It was a dour performance by a Rovers team sadly lacking in confidence.

Although they were founded in 1934, Peterborough didn't gain admittance to the League until 1960-61 season, replacing Gateshead, and duly ran away with the 4th Division Championship! Their record that season was quite remarkable, they won 28, drew 10 and lost just 8, but it is their goal scoring that catches the eye, 134 scored and 65 conceded. Posh legend Terry Bly notched a remarkable 52 goals.

Much of the Posh's success was built on FA Cup runs. In 1956-57 season, as a non-League club they reached the 4th Round of the FA Cup before going down 3-1 to Huddersfield at Leeds Road. They repeated the feat in 1959-60 season (again as a non-League club), 1960-61 and 1961-62. However their greatest cup run was in 1964-65 season when they beat Arsenal 2-1 at London Road in the 4th Round, beat Swansea in a 5th Round replay before going down 5-1 to Chelsea in the Quarter-Finals.

In 1967-68 season their world came crashing down on them when they were found to have made irregular bonus payments to their players and they were automatically relegated. It took them 6 years to recover their position.

There were five seasons in Division 3 before Posh were relegated back to the basement Division. Twelve seasons of being there or thereabouts culminated in promotion at the end of 1990-91 and was swiftly followed by another promotion the following season. There were just two season in the second tier of the League structure before relegation and within three years Posh were tumbling back to the basement again.

The 1999-2000 season saw them take off the final Play-Off spot to give them five years at Level 3. Posh's yo-yo like existence continued as they won promotion last season after finishing second with a very impressive 92 points.

Rovers first League meeting with Peterborough was on 4th September 1962 when goals by Keith Williams, Ian Hamilton and Bobby Jones secured a 3-1 win for the Pirates in front of an 11,860 Eastville crowd. Just 6 days later the Posh gained their revenge with a 1-0 victory at London Road.

On 15th September 1964 Rovers gained their biggest win over Peterborough when an Alfie Biggs' hat trick and a goal by Bobby Jones gave the Pirates a 4-0 win. Rovers' first goal was a penalty when the Referee Setchell ruled that Ian Hamilton's goal bound header was deliberately handled by Graham Birks. The 17,415 crowd were denied a sight of crowd entertainer and Irish international Derek Dougan who was out injured.

The following season Rovers keeper Bernard Hall had a good reason to remember the game. Diving at the feet of Peterborough's dangerous winger Tom Watson, Hall caught a kick to the head and the tip of his left ear was removed. It was never found!

Rovers' last visit to London Road was on the opening day of the promotion season. Like most teams Rovers started the season full of expectation. What they didn't expect was to find a 'borough team on fire. Jamie Day, Richard Butler and Simon Yeo all scored in half an hour of devastation to give Posh and unassailable half-time lead. Despite a reply from Sammy Igoe, a Lloyd Opera finish saw an emphatic win for the home team.

In total there have been 32 meetings between the teams. Rovers have won 14, there have been 10 draws and Peterborough have come out on top 8 times.

After last week-end's defeat Darren Ferguson has said he is sick of saying the same thing in the dressing room and in the post-match press conferences. Two horrible defensive errors inside three second-half minutes meant Posh went down 2-1 at home to Hartlepool causing Ferguson to bemoan crucial lapses of concentration.

Club captain Micah Hyde's misplaced clearance presented Andy Monkhouse with a simple scoring opportunity before hesitation between Captain Craig Morgan and goalkeeper Joe Lewis enabled substitute Richard Barker to add an immediate second.

In a post match assessment that could have been given by Paul Trollope last season Ferguson said: "I'm just repeating myself after every game and I'm tired of it. I could spend every minute of every hour working as hard as I can, but I can't do a thing about it during games. The players just have to cut out the errors which are costing us points. The ones this weekend spoilt what was a pretty good performance.

"In fact I find it hard to fault the general performance. We were excellent in the first-half when they struggled to live with our movement. We should have been two or three ahead at the interval, but I was still happy at that time because they had caused us no problems whatsoever.

"But the mistakes killed us. We rallied well and had chances to equalise once George Boyd pulled a goal back, but it wasn't to be. We have lost three League One matches now and I can honestly say we shouldn't have lost any of them.

"But I can't keep saying that. We have to learn to concentrate better and to take the chances that do come our way. It's okay for other managers to praise us, but we won't play as well as this every week so it's important to get good results when we do. But it's also important that we stay positive and back ourselves and the way we play."

Meanwhile Rovers need to get back on track after falling well short of the mark down on the South Coast. With the Sky TV cameras at London Road this will be a high profile clash of two good footballing teams.

Written by Gerry Prewett