City slumped to defeat at Northampton last Saturday having failed to press home their 1-0 half-time lead to concede twice, and with a tricky run of games coming up against a serious of sides tipped to be challenging come May, Gary Caldwell will hope to build on the positive result achieved in City’s first home match. Ryan Woods is ready to finally make his second debut following the red card picked up at Northampton at the end of last season, while Sonny Cox could also be in line for a return having been ruled out of the start of the campaign. Caldwell added to what is considered to be an already large squad with the loan signing of Kamari Doyle ahead of the trip to Northampton, where he made his début off the bench.
Considered to be one of the favourites for promotion, Peterborough had a tricky start in going down 2-0 at home to relegated Huddersfield then suffering the same scoreline in the EFL Cup at Championship new boys Oxford, before returning to form with a 4-1 thrashing of Shrewsbury last week. Darren Ferguson knew he would have to replace two of the club’s attacking threats following the departures of Ephron Mason-Clarke and Jonson Clarke-Harris, with Posh going down their tried and tested route of plucking players from lower down in the pyramid, this time Cian Hayes from National League Rochdale. Another signing caught the eye at City, with Jack Sparkes joining from Portsmouth to link up with former City team-mates Archie Collins and Joel Randall. All three have started every match this season although Sparkes was withdrawn after 35 minutes at Shrewsbury so may miss out on a trip back to Exeter. Randall scored twice in that match so will be in confident mood for Saturday.
Due to postponements for international call-ups, the sides met twice in the space of a month in the second half of the season last time, both matches finishing 2-1 to the hosts. The corresponding fixture saw Peterborough lead in the first half through a Harrison Burrows penalty, but after Michael Olakigbe was sent off the tide turned and City won it through a goal that was eventually credited to Reece Cole and an own goal from Jadel Katongo. The return saw Posh take an early lead through Mason-Clarke, parity was restored by Tom Carroll before a second half winner from Kwame Poku. That win extended Peterborough’s league head to head lead to 16-13, but Pools players may look to this fixture as 19 matches have finished level.
The match officials for this game will be:-
Referee: Will Finnie
Assistant Referees: Johnathon Bickerdike and Mark Derrien
Fourth Official : Elliott Swallow
Will Finnie took charge of an Exeter game twice last season, a 1-0 defeat at home to Bristol Rovers in February, and last August the 2-1 win over Reading. He took charge of 40 games last season, issuing 128 yellow cards and 7 red cards.
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Pre-match interview with Kevin Nicholson
Pre-match interview with Ryan Woods
