Peterborough United way ahead of expectations at this stage of season as they prepare for 'unusual' first day at Reading

Posh’s summer rebuild is in full-swing with eight players departing and nine arriving- including youngsters Fynn Talley, David Kawa and Donay O’Brien-Brady.

Several players that the club expect to leave- such as Ronnie Edwards and Jonson Clarke-Harris- are still at the club; as is Josh Knight- who saw a deal to join QPR breakdown at the 11th hour- but Ferguson is pleased with the way his squad is shaping up.

He said: “I’ve never been one to set too many targets as you get into trouble if you fall too far behind. It’s a cliche but I really do take every game as it comes. We’ll just look at Reading and deal with that.

“The players know the quality in the squad and we’ve got to be competitive in every game. We want to be competitive, we will be competitive but we don’t need to go around shouting from the rooftops that we’re going to be doing this, that or the other.

"Eight have gone out of the door and we’ve got quite a few in, included the ones we wanted. We’ve done well in the window.

"Let’s see how this team grows and develops. The start of the season is important for getting confidence and with confidence, we’ll see their full potential.

"I’ve been very pleased with the players, the business we’ve done and the fact we’ve had no injuries.

"League One isn’t any stronger this year but it’s still very, very competitive. There’s team like Oxford, Charlton and Portsmouth that will improve considerably.

"We are building a new team and we’re way ahead of where I thought we might be at this stage.”

Posh will be looking to get off to the perfect start on Saturday as they travel to face trouble Reading.

The side who came down from the Championship last season have only 11 senior players on their books, including former Cambridge striker Sam Smith, who has already picked up a long-term injury.

The club is back under transfer embargo following a failure to pay a HRMC bill and there are doubts about whether new signings- such as Charlie Savage- will be registered before the match.

A sit-in protest is planned against owner Dai Yongge after the match.

Ferguson added: “It’s an unusual first day in terms of all their very public problems and a planned protest but it’s still going to be a tough game and we’ve got to ignore all the noise. They still have players that played in the Championship last season.

“We have to go there focus on what we’ve been working on, put on a performance and hope that’s enough to get a win.

Posh have an almost clean bill of health heading into the match. Only Emmanuel Fernandez missed training on Thursday with a bug and will be assessed on Friday.

On Josh Knight, Ferguson said: “It is an unusual situation but Josh has trained very well, he was disappointed but he’s fine; he’s dealt with it.”