After finishing sixth and third respectively in League One, Peterborough United and Sheffield Wednesday will kick off their playoff semi-final tie on Friday in a match at the Weston Homes Stadium.

In the regular season, the Owls finished 19 points better off than their hosts, who managed to climb back into the top six on the final day, thanks to Sheffield Wednesday’s beating of Derby County.

Follwoing Darren Ferguson’s return to the club as manager at the beginning of the new year, Peterborough have collected 42 points from their remaining 22 matches in League One, and they successfully climbed into the top six with a positive run of four wins from a five-game span across March and April.

After those results fired them up to fifth place with five matches remaining, Ferguson’s side were unable to sustain the fine form and quickly dropped back out of pole position in the playoff race as 2-0 and 3-0 defeats to Cambridge United and Ipswich Town respectively followed, either side of a victory over Accrington Stanley, before a disappointing draw with Bristol Rovers left them two points behind sixth-placed Derby County heading into the final round of fixtures on Sunday.

With Derby also boasting the slightly better goal difference ahead of their meeting with Sheffield Wednesday, Peterborough required a favour from the Owls and a victory of their own in a tough test away at fourth-placed Barnsley, but they would defy the odds and sneak back into the final playoff spot, as Derby suffered a 1-0 defeat at Hillborough while the Posh enjoyed a much more successful trip to South Yorkshire with Jonson Clarke-Harris and Jack Taylor on the scoresheet in a 2-0 success.

Now still having a chance of making an immediate return to the Championship following their relegation last season, Peterborough will hope to carry momentum from that dramatic final-day success into Friday and make the most of home advantage to go ahead in their tricky semi-final tie.

They face a Sheffield Wednesday side who had their sights set on the automatic promotion spots throughout the campaign and occupied a spot in the top two until the beginning of April through a 23-game league unbeaten run between October and mid-March.

Darren Moore’s side would eventually be overtaken by both Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town, as that run was followed by a six-game unbeaten streak in which they managed just four points, leaving the chasing for the final six games of the regular season.

A 3-0 victory over Accrington Stanley was then followed by a harmful 3-2 defeat away at Burton Albion, before four straight wins were not enough to narrow the deficit to the relentless top two, as they claimed victories over Bristol Rovers, Exeter City and Shrewsbury Town before beating Derby County 1-0 on the final day on Sunday through Michael Smith’s first-half penalty.

With Plymouth and Ipswich not letting up, the Owls remained confined to a third-placed finish, despite picking up an impressive tally of 96 points, more than any side who have gone up from League One automatically in second spot since Blackburn Rovers in the 2017-18 campaign.

Sheffield Wednesday have at least rebuilt plenty of momentum ahead of the playoffs with their four straight wins and will hope to build on that on Friday with a positive result in the away leg before welcoming Peterborough to Hillsborough next week.

Peterborough United vs. Sheffield Wednesday Head to head

In the 12 previous meetings between these two teams, Peterborough have claimed four victories while Sheffield have won six, and they have drawn twice. Sheffield have scored 16 goals and conceded 17 in the process.

• 15/03/2011
  Sheffield Wednesday

  1

  Peterborough United

  4
  League One
• 03/11/2012
  Sheffield Wednesday

  2

  Peterborough United

  1
  Championship
• 27/04/2013
  Peterborough United

  1

  Sheffield Wednesday

  0
  Championship
• 16/08/2022
  Peterborough United

  2

  Sheffield Wednesday

  0
  League One
• 04/03/2023
  Sheffield Wednesday

  1

  Peterborough United

  0
  League One