Daniels fighting to be back in action this weekend

The 22-year-old defender - a summer signing from West Brom - has missed the last two games with a hamstring problem.

But he is back in training and champing at the bit to be involved for the visit of Posh.

“He’s been working with the fitness coaches this week, and we’ll see how he is on Thursday,” revealed boss Gary Caldwell, who also has Leon Barnett knocking on the door after an impressive showing off the bench at Millwall in midweek.

“I keep saying every week that the squad is so important,” he added.

“When you’re not in the team, you have to work hard in training because you never know what might come up and when you’ll need to be called upon.”

That said, Caldwell is in no rush to ring the changes at the back after a fifth clean sheet in six matches saw 10-man Latics frustrate in-form Millwall following the first-half dismissal of Sam Morsy.

Goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen again took the plaudits for a string of magnificent saves to preserve a valuable point.

But centre-backs Jason Pearce and Craig Morgan were outstanding at the heart of the defence in a real backs-to-the-wall effort.

“It was another magnificent performance from Jussi,” acknowledged Caldwell.

“But unlike last weekend (against Bury), he had players in front of him that really defended for their lives and really helped him to get that clean sheet.

“It’s probably as good a result as we’ve had in recent weeks.

“When we came in at half-time, we still had it in our thoughts to win the game.

“But I said to them before they went out that the minimum they had to come back with was a clean sheet.

“They managed to do that by showing great bravery and great defending - and also when we had the ball as well.

“I thought we played very well for long spells even with a man down, and I was delighted with the result.”

Latics will be hot favourites to extend their unbeaten run to 14 matches against a Posh side that sat in a play-off berth just before Christmas but have dropped like a stone in recent weeks.

Caldwell, though, is taking nothing for granted with automatic promotion now tantalisingly within reach.

“They’re all big games at the moment - and we have to keep going,” he recognised.

“At this time of the season you look forward to every game, because you’re coming in to that crucial time where every game and every point is so important.

“And we’ll look forward to the challenge that Peterborough bring, because they’re a good side.

“We’ll give the players time to recover from Tuesday, but nothing will change in terms of how we prepare for Saturday.

“We’ve prepared that in advance, and we’ll make sure the team we put out is 100 per cent ready - both physically and mentally - to put on a performance.

“It’s all about concentrating on what we do, and I couldn’t be happier with the attitude and the application at the moment.”