Peterborough finished 18th in the Championship in 2012 and headed into the 2012-13 season with an expectation to survive but hopes of a mid-table finish.

Manager Darren Ferguson set about changing the bulk of his squad, with no fewer than nine players arriving on permanent deals and six players either released or sold.

The most expensive signing was Tyrone Barnett from Crawley Town for £1.2m, but just £300,000 was spent on Robert Olejnik from Torquay United, who would immediately become a key member of the Posh side.

After the first half of the Championship season, Sports Mole considers Peterborough's performance so far.

August

The season looked to have started promisingly for Peterborough with a 4-0 drubbing of Southend United in the League Cup, but four days later they were defeated 2-0 in the Championship opener by Leicester City.

A 1-0 lead at home to Millwall next turned into a 2-1 defeat and four days later they had their third defeat in a week, also at home, as Leeds United took all three points away from London Road.

At the end of a poor August, Posh were 23rd and the losing streak was not about to end anytime soon.

September

September 1 brought a 1-0 defeat to Birmingham City at St Andrew's before an international break gave them a chance to regroup.

However, it did not help and three more defeats arrived in the week starting September 15 as first Burnley tore them apart 5-2 before Bristol City and Wolverhampton Wanderers won 2-1 and 2-0 respectively at London Road.

After seven straight defeats for an abysmal start to the season, Posh finally got their first win right at the end of September thanks to an Emile Sinclair hat-trick in a 3-1 away victory at Hull City. Despite this win, Peterborough were firmly stuck to the bottom of the table.

October

The threat of an improvement reared its head as Posh claimed their second win in the space of a few days with another away victory, this time 2-0 at Barnsley.

However, their return to London Road was disappointing as Forest turned them over 1-0, before another defeat after the two-week break came at Watford on October 20.

There was a big improvement in the final two games of October as a George Boyd brace helped them to a 3-1 win over Huddersfield Town and Saido Berahino, who arrived on loan at the start of the month, grabbed two of his own in a 3-0 defeat of Derby County. Both results were at London Road.

November

Inconsistency struck again in November. The two wins in October had lifted Posh to 21st in the league, but a 2-1 loss at Sheffield Wednesday and a late defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion dropped them back into the mire.

The Brighton result in particular heaped pressure on Ferguson as Posh chairman Darrah MacAnthony launched an attack on his manager's tactics after the defeat.

They returned to London Road and capitulated in the final 10 minutes against Crystal Palace to go down 2-1, before being resoundingly beaten by Blackburn Rovers 4-1.

In between these two results, four first-team players were fined and transfer-listed for breaking club rules. However Posh would not reveal more than the players' identities: Barnett, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Sinclair and Gabriel Zakuani.

An away draw with Ipswich Town and a 2-0 defeat at The Valley followed, but by then Posh were right back to the bottom of the Championship.

December

It somehow got worse for Peterborough as home defeats in the first week of December – 4-1 to Blackpool and 3-2 to Middlesbrough – threatened to put them out of touch with the rest of the league.

However, a remarkable improvement at the start of the festive period has seen nine points come from a possible nine. First came a shock away win at Cardiff City in which Dwight Gayle – a striker on loan from Dagenham & Redbridge who is joining permanently in January – scored his fourth goal in three games.

He added another in the incredible 5-4 home win against Bolton Wanderers and his sixth in five games in the 3-0 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The decision to bring in Gayle could prove to be the Championship signing of the season, should he help Posh to an unlikely survival. As it stands after the three-game winning steak they are right back in touch in 22nd in the Championship.