Bristol Street Motors Trophy: Darren Ferguson aims to 'enjoy' second Peterborough win
Last updated on .From the section Peterborough
Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson hopes to enjoy next month's trip to Wembley a lot more than he did when they won the EFL Trophy in 2014.
They will take on Wycombe Wanderers at Wembley on 7 April, a decade on from beating Chesterfield 3-1 in the final.
It could be the first part of a double for Posh, who are again in contention for a League One play-offs place.
"The game 10 years ago, I didn't like at all, but we won, so I suppose you're happy with that," he said.
Ferguson also won the competition as a player, scoring an extra-time goal as Wrexham beat Southend United 2-0 in 2005.
But he admitted there is always a job to do before it gets under way to enthuse players about the potential significance.
"As a manager you have to really motivate the players at the start of this tournament because they don't see the bigger picture, whereas my focus was always on Wembley and visualising what it would be like," he told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
"Once you get to the quarters, you can start feeding that into the players and that's what I did.
"When we got to the semi we were on a bad run, we'd lost four on the bounce, but the players showed a real level of confidence and belief. I thought we were fantastic."
'Hard work's done'
Peterborough had to travel to Blackpool for their semi-final, having lost 2-1 at home to them in the league just three days earlier, but came away from Bloomfield Road with a decisive 3-0 victory as Harrison Burrows scored twice.
Ferguson said: "The hardest thing was to get there. The semi-final is always the hardest game in a cup. because you've got the anxiety, you've got the tension - for me I think the hard work's done, now just go there and enjoy it."
Posh are fourth in League One, with a seven-point gap to the automatic promotion places to try to make up over the final eight games.
Prior to Wembley, they will face Carlisle United at home on Friday 29 March and travel to Leyton Orient the following Monday.
"If we can take care of our league business over Easter, I think the players can go there and enjoy the day," Ferguson added.
"It's a great day out, the whole morning leading up to the game, when you get on the bus and see Wembley, it's a really, really special thing.
"The group of players I've got, I really think they'll thrive on the occasion (at Wembley). I think they'll go there and really enjoy it and hopefully get a performance that's good enough to beat Wycombe."
