Ferguson Banned from Old Trafford

Darren Ferguson

Even before the result at Wembley was decided, Sir Alex Ferguson has been told to stay away from Old Trafford when Peterborough take on Huddersfield in the League One play-off final on Sunday.

The order comes from his son, and Peterborough manager, Darren Ferguson - who claims his father is a jinx. After the defeat by Barcelona Sir Alex will hardly argue against that view

given  the way Guardiola's team went about their business on Saturday night.

Having watched their semi-final first-leg defeat at MK Dons Sir Alex steered clear when they won the second leg 2-0 to go through 4-3 on aggregate.

The Posh will not be taking no chances as they bid to secure promotion back to the Championship.

"Our chairman is the same, he's told his dad to stay away as well," Ferguson told www.theposh.com.

"We think they are both jinxes. There's a bigger picture, he can watch it on the television."

With United in London for the UEFA Champions League final Peterborough have been able to make use of their plush training facilities and get accustomed to Old Trafford.

Ferguson junior will be on familiar territory having began his playing career with United and he hopes his squad will be inspired by their surroundings, as well as by watching the big Wembley showdown.

"It's been key to be able to train at Carrington and to have a walk around Old Trafford," he added. "We'll also get together and watch the Champions League final.

"Old Trafford is a fantastic theatre - it is called the Theatre of Dreams - and it's a magnificent stadium. When you walk out of that tunnel and look up it seems to go on and on forever.

"It's important the players get a feel for it. The players have to handle the situation when they walk out in front of 70,000 fans.

"I think they will be fine, we have players in the team who will think 'I'll have a bit of this' and I'm hopeful they'll go on and put in the right performance.

"The players know if we can perform we will be hard to beat."

Posh face a Huddersfield side on a 28-game unbeaten but Ferguson feels his team are peaking at the right time.

"Huddersfield have a bit more experience than us but we'll go into it like we do any other game," he said.

"We know we have to perform to our maximum. I felt we were close to that against MK Dons and we got our reward.

"The semi-final has gone now, and there's no point getting to the final and getting beaten."