Preview: Peterborough United vs. Cheltenham Town - prediction, team news, lineups

Peterborough United will attempt to end a four-game winless league run when they face Cheltenham Town at the Weston Homes Stadium on Tuesday.

The visitors, meanwhile, are still searching for their first win of the League One season after picking up just a point from their opening seven matches.

Match preview

© Reuters

After beginning the League One season with three successive victories, Peterborough have experienced a drop-off in results in recent weeks, losing three straight league games before facing Leyton Orient on Saturday.

Although they managed to end their run of defeats, the Posh had to settle for a point after Leyton Orient's Omar Beckles cancelled out Harry Kyprianou's opener.

Despite claiming two positive results in the EFL Trophy amid their winless league run, Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson will be disappointed with his side's recent form and their current mid-table position.

Having conceded 10 goals in the last five matches, Peterborough will be looking to rediscover the defensive resilience that they exhibited in the first two games of the season when they claimed consecutive clean sheets.

They will at least be confident of finding the net on Tuesday after scoring in six of their opening seven league matches.

Meanwhile, Cheltenham have endured a poor start to the 2023-24 campaign, with their nine competitive fixtures producing one draw and eight defeats.

They were edged out in Saturday's away meeting with Exeter City after Caleb Watts's second-half winner condemned the Robins to a fourth consecutive defeat in League One.

As a result of the narrow 1-0 loss, Cheltenham are still waiting to find the net in the league this season, with their only goal of the campaign arriving in a heavy 4-1 defeat to Bristol Rovers in the EFL Trophy.

Cheltenham, who are one of three sides yet to win a game in League One this season, head into the midweek contest in 23rd place with four points separating them from safety.

With Wade Elliott's position coming under scrutiny, the Cheltenham boss will be hoping that his side can produce the sort of performance that earned them a 3-0 win over Peterborough when the two sides met at the Weston Homes Stadium in March.

Team News

Peterborough are unable to call upon goalkeeper Will Blackmore, who recently underwent hip surgery and is set to be out of action for around four months.

Jeando Fuchs and Ricky-Jade Jones are still sidelined for the hosts, while Malik Mothersille is also absent as he continues to work his way to full fitness following his deadline-day arrival from Chelsea.

After being introduced at half time of Saturday's draw with Leyton Orient, David Ajiboye and Joel Randall are in contention to start Tuesday's encounter.

As for the visitors, they are expected to be without the services of Tom Bradbury, Will Goodwin, Grant Horton, Sean Long and Curtis Thompson.

After coming off the bench to play the second half of Saturday's contest, Elliot Bonds could be brought into the lineup.

Aidan Keena dropped out of the side at the weekend, but the forward is set to return to the starting XI for the midweek trip to Peterborough.

Peterborough United possible starting lineup:

Bilokapic; Kioso, Edwards, Knight, Burrows; Kyprianou, Collins; Ajiboye, Randall, Mason-Clark; Clarke-Harris

Cheltenham Town possible starting lineup:

Southwood; Long, Bevan, Freestone; J. Williams, Bonds, Sercombe, B. Williams; Street, Ferry, Keena

We say: Peterborough United 2-0 Cheltenham Town

While Peterborough may be experiencing a poor run of results, we think that they will prove too strong for a Cheltenham side bereft of confidence after losing six of their opening seven league matches.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.