Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson admits he is looking to freshen up his squad in the January transfer window as he looks to pull his side out of their latest slump.

However, the Posh chief admits he will have to trim his squad before bringing anyone in this January and he has already pinpointed who is heading for the London Road exit door.

'We need players to go out before some can come in,' he told the club's official website. 'We will be very sensible in the way we do it but we're very determined to freshen things up.

'I'm keen on getting three or four out – I've identified who they are and hopefully that will be the case.

'When that happens hopefully we can get one or two in. I've also got Rowe, Kearns, Alcock to come back, which will be a real boost.

'I think I've got enough numbers but we want to freshen it up and bit and that's something that we will look to do.'

Peterborough's need for reinforcements was illustrated on New Year's Day as they slumped to their third consecutive defeat against leaders Brentford. The loss leaves Peterborough 10 points off the automatic promotion pace in fifth and starting to look over their shoulders.

Ferguson believes his side must focus on getting back to basics if they are to get back into promotion contention.

'When you're in the sort of run we're on you have to make sure you do the basics right, especially defending,' he said. 'We need to get back to stopping goals going in.

'We missed Lee Tomlin (against Brentford) – it would have been a perfect game for Lee to play. Danny played in his position and it's no slight on him but when you've got a player of that magnitude suspended it's difficult.'