Ipswich v Peterborough: Mick McCarthy has warned his Town team not to underestimate East Anglian rivals Peterborough when the two sides clash at Portman Road tomorrow.

Posh are bottom of the Championship having lost 13 of their 17 games, including four straight defeats against Sheffield Wednesday (1-2), Brighton (0-1), Crystal Palace (1-2) and Blackburn Rovers (1-4).

But the inconsistency nature of the second tier means Darren Ferguson’s side remain in close proximity to the sides above them – including third-bottom Ipswich.

And McCarthy believes Peterborough’s poor run of form has been rather misleading, saying: “The games I’ve seen – Blackburn I had a look at this morning and the game against Palace – there has not been a lot in their games, strangely enough.

“The league is like that. Conceding four against Blackburn looks dreadful, but for a lot of the game they were in it. They played okay.

“Against Palace they were winning up until the last eight minutes. Like all the teams in this league they have players who can compete. They’re not complete mugs, just like we aren’t, but we are both sides who give a goal away and then look fragile.

“On their day they could turn up, play football and give you problems. Like us they make mistakes though and it costs them.”

After Town’s 6-0 defeat at Leicester City last Saturday, McCarthy is looking for an instant response from his players.

He added: “We’ve got to focus on Peterborough now, let’s address that rather than the nonsense that went on last week.

“Somebody has just said to me that Darren Ferguson has described it as huge and in my programme notes I’ve described it as exactly the same.

“I guess that both sides have been hoping to keep it tight all season. Every team that turns up wants to keep it tight – that’s a prerequisite.

“We’ve done it in two of the games (Birmingham and Burnley). In two games we’ve looked solid, but in the other two we’ve made mistakes and been picked off. I bet if Darren Ferguson, if he was sat here, would say exactly the same about his team.

“It could be a 0-0 draw or a 5-5 draw after that spiel.”