Posh can show their class to send Tranmere packing

FA Cup first-round replay
BT Sport 1, 7.45pm Wednesday

Fifty-three places separate Tranmere and Peterborough in the football pyramid and even though Posh made a mess of their first attempt at toppling National League opposition, they can get it right second time round.

There wasn’t a great deal to choose between the sides at London Road in the first match where the tactics deployed by gaffers Grant McCann and Micky Mellon seemed to cancel each other out.

The upshot, perhaps unsurprisingly, was a 1-1 draw with Andy Cook cancelling out Jack Marriott’s opener for the Sky Bet League One outfit.

Both sides go again at Prenton Park in good form – Rovers have lost just one of their last nine while Peterborough have lost one in six. In that sequence of results for McCann’s men is a 1-0 win against Shrewsbury making them the only side this season to beat the League One pace-setters.

It could all come down to firepower and Posh seem to have more of it.

Ricky Miller, signed after pouring in goals for Dover, is unavailable, but Marriott cannot stop scoring, the colourful Marcus Maddison is a threat from anywhere and Danny Lloyd notched at Wimbledon on Sunday after being thrown further forward.

Posh, who are eighth in League One, have bagged 17 goals in their last nine away games – Tranmere have scored only 19 goals in 19 league games this season. Fourteen of those 19 matches have produced no more than two goals so the odds-on about over 2.5 makes little appeal.

Mellon’s side are much improved from earlier in the campaign as they endeavour to mount a promotion challenge.

They were very good beating Dagenham & Redbridge 2-0 on Saturday and have got enough pace out wide to worry league defences. It’s the finishing touches in the box that have been a concern though in-form James Norwood, with six in his last nine, is spearheading their revival.

The other worry for Mellon was he picked up a couple more injuries at the weekend with Jeff Hughes and Mitchell Duggan missing from this encounter.

Peterborough recruited Steven Taylor from Newcastle in the summer but they still look fragile at the back. They shipped two poor goals at Wimbledon on Sunday in a 2-2 draw. Tranmere, however, don’t pack anything like the same punch as the Dons or most other teams Peterborough are facing on a weekly basis.

Recommendation
Peterborough
2pts Evs general

Best on this match at Soccerbase.com

Team news

Tranmere
Mitchell Duggan and Jeff Hughes sustained hamstring injuries at the weekend and they will be out for about three weeks. Still absent are Jack Dunn (hamstring), James Wallace (knee) and Ben Tollitt (knee).

Peterborough
Striker Ricky Miller is unavailable as he awaits a court appearance. Fellow frontman Junior Morias is injured.

Key stat
Tranmere’s National League matches this season average 1.8 goals per game.

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