GEORGE Johnston is keen to put a marker down on Peterborough United’s in-form attack when the two sides meet at the Toughsheet this afternoon.

The Bolton defender, who has captained the side for the last two games, is disappointed to have kept just two clean sheets in the opening 11 games of the season.

Shutting out Posh – who have scored more goals than anyone else in 2024 – would be a big step in the right direction, and Johnston believes he can set the right tone by winning his early battles with flyers like Kwame Poku and Malik Mothersille.

The 26-year-old has developed a cult following on the terraces for his no-nonsense style and he makes no apologies for his ‘old fashioned’ approach to defending.

“Everyone has got to do their bit to start the game right,” he told The Bolton News. “If there’s an opportunity for a defender to do something it’s probably by winning a duel and putting a stamp of authority down from the start. It’s something I look to do if I get the opportunity.

“All the lads know we need to come out flying from the blocks like we have done in the past.

“I find myself getting in those positions and the opportunity to do those sort of tackles quite a lot and I do enjoy them. If you dangle your leg you are more prone to get hurt, so you have to go into it with some intensity.

“I’d never do anything to try and hurt anyone – it’s strong, but fair – but I go in to protect myself more than anything.

“First and foremost as a defender you have to do the basics. That’s what I was brought up doing.”

Though Peterborough have scored 25 times this season, more than any other club, they have also drawn a blank on three occasions, against Huddersfield Town, Wigan Athletic and Wrexham.

Posh are the only team in the division not to register a single clean sheet this season, a statistic which provides Johnston with optimism as Ian Evatt’s side look to bounce back from defeat at Birmingham City in midweek.

“They are an open and attacking team but they will give you chances,” he said. “We back ourselves to score goals, especially at home.

“In the defensive aspect we have conceded more than we’d like and there haven’t been enough clean sheets.

“I think some of the goals we have let in have been cheap, luck isn’t going our way with some of them, so you hope that turns. But I think we need to be tidier and more precise with the details and then that should hopefully bring results.

“Before the Birmingham game we’d been conceding goals but still winning them. I think it stems from that confidence, post-Reading, we came out flying and that had a knock-on effect. You earn luck sometimes, so if we keep working hard hopefully things will turn.”

Wanderers start the day 14th in League One, a point behind Peterborough, and with a dressing room target of taking at least seven points from their three remaining games before the international break.

“I feel like the table is in a fine balance at the moment,” Johnston said. “We are not too far from the top six, a win against Peterborough and other results going our way could change that massively. We also know the opposite can happen.

“We want to stay in that pack and then once we get up there, we will kick on.”