SWINDON Town defender Jonathan Grounds says his teammates must go into their home game against Peterborough United with a positive mindset as John Sheridan’s men attempt to spring a surprise result and boost their survival hopes.

Town welcome second-place Posh to the County Ground on Saturday hoping to respond to a disappointing Easter Bank-Holiday weekend. Swindon lost 2-0 to Blackpool on Good Friday before going down 2-1 away at Burton Albion on Monday.

Many fear John Sheridan’s side may be in for a tough afternoon, however, Peterborough have only won one of their previous five away fixtures as the pressure of promotion mounts.

Town have a battle of their own though, and survival or relegation will come down to the final seven games – not that Grounds is willing to look past the weekend.

He said: “Monday was just a massive opportunity missed for us. There was a great opportunity for us to come away from Burton with three points. We were definitely in the ascendancy at 1-1, but we have to look at each game now as they come.

“We’ve got Peterborough on Saturday, and we have to go into that game being positive. Obviously, they’re going really well at the minute, but it’s a game we have to try and get something from.

“Then we move onto the week where we do play Rochdale and Wimbledon. But we’ve got a tough game against Peterborough that we’ve got to focus on first.”

If Town are to claim three points against high-flying Peterborough, the standard of passing between both boxes must be as high as it was against Burton, according to Grounds.

But the Thornaby-born defender says Town’s attacking intent must greatly improve also.

Grounds said: “The only positive we could take from Monday was the 80 yards between both boxes.

“We’ve probably moved the ball as good as we have done for a while, got ourselves in good situations, but then probably not got enough people in the box and that’s why they’ve been able to defend crosses that we have done.

“The goal we did score – we’ve probably shifted them from side to side two or three times and Jack had some good time on the edge of the box, and he’s picked out a lovely finish.

“It was something we spoke about at half-time, trying to shift Burton’s block around a little bit, but when we have got wide and in crossing positions we probably haven’t got enough people in the box.”