Ball ready for familiar foes

Ball joined Peterborough in January 2011 from Manchester City came on as a late substitute when they clinched promotion to the Championship with a 3-0 play-off final win over Huddersfield at Old Trafford that May.

The blond hitman made 41 league appearances and scored nine times for Peterborough before sealing a switch to Fleetwood in the summer of 2012.

And as he prepares to come up against some familiar faces both on and off the pitch, Ball reflects on his time at Peterborough with McCann and other team-mates fondly.

He said: “It was a good part of my career. We managed to get promoted to the Championship and I managed to play quite a few games in the Championship as well.

“I played with some really talented footballers who I learned a lot from at the time.

“Barry Fry was the manager then and I played alongside Grant there for two years.

“I know him well and there are probably two or three other players still there from the time I was there.

“A lot of the players have moved on to similar things or better things.”

Ball says he expects McCann the manager, who took over from Graham Westley in April, to develop a team playing positively

He said: “Grant will certainly want his team to play football and he will ask a lot of his players.

“As a player you would want to play for him, and as a manager I can see him putting his arm around a few of the young lads and getting the best out of them.”

And Ball has done his homework on his old employers.

Fleetwood’s game at Bristol Rovers last weekend was postponed due to the Pirates’ international call-ups, so Ball watched Peterborough instead at they ended their six- match winless run with a 3-1 victory over Bury.

Ball says that the Shakers did not put Peterborough on the back-foot, but he believes that if Uwe Rosler’s Town get it right defensively they can pose plenty of problems and end their own five-match winless run.

Ball added: “I watched their game last weekend and I don’t think Bury put them under the pressure they needed to.

“Peterborough are renowned for playing really good attacking football, so if we can get it right defensively I think we can play off that and cause them problems.”