In the space of just seven days Posh travelled from awesome to awful to the bewilderment of everyone at London Road, particularly it would seem, manager Darren Ferguson.

Ferguson was so inspired by the FA Cup victory at Colchester the previous weekend he started talking about putting a good enough run together to win League Two, never mind automatic promotion or a play-off place.

It was a comment based on confidence in a playing squad, which promptly received a further investment of £400,000, and no-one should damn him for that. Unfortunately Ferguson had egg smeared all over his face by a display not good enough or spirited enough to be described as incompetent or lacklustre.

Both words were readily employed by any Posh visitor to the post-match press briefing when stronger ones were surely required. As the manager himself admitted this was an accident waiting to happen.

"Before the game I urged the players to start at a fast tempo," Ferguson insisted. "We've started too slowly too often at home and one day it was bound to cost us a match."

Few expected it to be this match. Macclesfield arrived at London Road with no wins in their previous eight games and minus their top two strikers.

They signed four players on loan on Friday and then threw a scratch side together. A quick, powerful start involving the division's most lethal forwards was surely called for, instead Posh opted for slow, laboured passing moves, usually involving a makeshift back four.

Macclesfield could have been two up inside eight minutes, but after Claude Gnakpa had robbed Gareth Evans in the nick of time and Izak Reid had shot over after robbing Jamie Day inside his own area, they had to wait 31 minutes before taking a deserved lead.

Reid's goal owed as much to dreadful marking as it did to a deflection off Kieran Charnock which sent the ball looping over record signing Joe Lewis and into the net, but it was thoroughly deserved.

The goal did at least draw a partial response as Aaron Mclean saw a threatening shot deflected and then forced a fine save from visiting keeper Jonathan Brain with a header from a corner, but even a senseless act by Evans failed to prompt any decisive improvement.

Evans was rightly sent off five minutes after the break for elbowing Lewis as they jostled for position at a corner, but, despite regular alterations to personnel, player positions and formations, Posh remained pretty hopeless.

Misfiring star striker Craig Mackail-Smith had been surprisingly withdrawn at half-time (Ferguson confirmed it was for tactical reasons) and replaced by a left-back in Tommy Williams. Others were lucky to remain in place, but they still declined to take advantage of their good fortune.

Free-kicks continued to be rushed and ill-thought-out and any promising positions and moves were usually thwarted by shots from ridiculous distances.

Crosses were either gobbled up easily by Brain or embarrassingly overhit.

Only Williams presented any real threat and two of his deep crosses were met by Whelpdale and substitute Liam Hatch, but both were booted off the goal-line with the keeper beaten.