Vital play-off points are on the line at London Road tonight, when Peterborough United try to open up a five-point gap on seventh-placed Walsall.

Posh go into the match full of confidence having won 2-1 at high-flying Leyton Orient on Saturday and with three wins in their last four matches in League One, during which they have scored 13 goals.

Darren Ferguson's squad has been further bolstered this week by the loan signings of Cardiff City centre-back Ben Nugent and Bournemouth attacking midfielder Josh McQuoid.

With Walsall just two points behind Posh in the table, Ferguson knows how important a win tonight would be.

'There's only two points in it so it's a very big game but after a very good win at Leyton Orient we're going into it with good confidence and believe,' Ferguson told The Posh Player.

'The key thing is consistency, in performance but mainly in results and if we can try and get a run going and try and open up a bit of a gap, so Friday's a good opportunity to do that.

'It would mean we are five points ahead of them with a game in hand so I think it's a big game with them in that sense.

'We're now getting the reverse fixtures and Leyton Orient, I have to say thoroughly deserved to beat us here (3-1), and the same when we went to Walsall (losing 2-0), which was probably collectively and for the whole game our worst performance of the season, we got absolutely thumped, it could have been a lot worse.

'So our hope and our aim is to reverse the results and take it from there really.'

Ferguson is expecting the 'awful' London Road pitch to again be in a poor state but expects the game to go ahead, before a three-week period without a home game to try and get the pitch back up to scratch.

He is looking forward to having 21-year-old Nugent available to bolster his defence though, as his side have also conceded nine goals in the last four league matches.

'He gives us size, he'll get the ball out of the box and that's what we need,' Ferguson said. 'He's left sided as well so that's a benefit to us. He scored against us for Brentford (in a loan spell earlier this season), he played 14 games for Cardiff when they won the league last season in the Championship.'

'He's only young but he's quite an experienced young one, he'll do fine for us for six weeks. Like I say he's left sided, he'll head it, he wants to defend, so it's something we needed.'