PETERBOROUGH boss Darren Ferguson has demanded that his players get the basics ‘bang on’ to avoid joining Newport County AFC's list of FA Cup scalps.

The League One side travel to Rodney Parade on Saturday in the first round of the famous competition looking to boost morale after a testing start to the campaign.

The Posh have been stretched by injuries and, after making the play-off semi-finals for the past two seasons, are down in 13th.

Nonetheless, they travel to Newport as favourites with Ferguson keen to avoid joining Leicester, Middlesbrough and Leeds as a team from a higher division to come a cropper at Rodney Parade in the FA Cup (with more victims in the Carabao Cup).

“The basics have got to be bang on because they are a team that in the last few years have been notorious for going on cup runs and causing upsets,” said the Scot.

“It's always a hard place to go and they have had a couple of clean sheets recently, so we are under no illusions it's going to be a tough game. Away from home in the cup is always tough.”

"They have nothing to lose. We all know that shocks in the first round are 100 per cent guaranteed to happen.

“There is still magic in the FA Cup and they have a crowd down there who can whip up a great atmosphere.”

Peterborough United manager Darren FergusonPeterborough United manager Darren Ferguson (Image: Mike Egerton)

Ferguson isn’t tempted to ring the changes with one eye on climbing the third tier – “I will play the strongest team that we have got” – and will be keen to tighten up in defence.

Peterborough are League One’s third highest scorers but are ranked 23rd for goals against, with the boss knowing that they might have to cope with giant County striker Kyle Hudlin.

“He's a big lad, obviously, but he's actually technically good and they get a lot of the ball at his feet when linking up,” said Ferguson about the loanee, who has scored three goals since arriving from Huddersfield.

“If he does play then we will have to deal with him. When they get the ball wide he gets between people, so we have to make sure we stop the crosses and, if we don’t, then deal with them.”

Peterborough are set to be boosted by the return of Northern Irishman Chris Conn-Clarke, who has been out of action since September.

The attacking midfielder joined in the summer for an undisclosed fee after banging in 23 goals in 46 games for Altrincham in the National League.

Peterborough also boast one of League One’s top talents in Kwame Poku, who has scored seven goals and provided five assists so far this season.