The Posh boss described the match as 'farcical' and 'absurd' as both defences struggled in front of the live Sky TV cameras.

Ferguson admitted that the 90 minutes has given him plenty to ponder ahead of next Saturday's local derby at Northampton.

Ferguson said: "I feel I just want to go home and chill out after that. I'm sure for the neutrals and the television people it was a great game of football, but for me it was a farce.

"We won which is obviously great and I want to entertain which is good also, but I will have to take a long, hard look at the match video at some of our defending.

"And I'm not just singling out the centre-backs or indeed the whole defence, as a team we were sorely lacking when defending all match.

"Even when we were two goals ahead I never felt comfortable that we were going to close the game down.

"There was an edginess and nervousness about the place which I hadn't seen before. There was no composure to our football and that disappointed me.

"We looked anxious and on another day it could easily have finished 10-9. It was just absurd at times and it was difficult to work out which team defended the worst.

"Obviously we played great going forward and Craig Mackail-Smith was outstanding.

"He deserves the credit he will get because he was just too good for the Rovers defence.

"He works hard and his finishing was excellent. It was just a shame that we lost Aaron Mclean to a bad injury because the pair of them were outstanding when they were together.

"I'm pleased that they both scored as there were some people starting to doubt them because they'd gone up a level.

"I wasn't one of them which is why I always pick them."