Darren Ferguson laments 'terrible goals' conceded, but defends selection policy as weakened Peterborough United side were beaten by relegation-threatened Cheltenham

Ferguson made seven changes to his line-up, which included leaving star men like Harrison Burrows, Ronnie Edwards, Josh Knight and Archie Collins out of the side entirely. Burrows and Edwards had previously started every League One game this season.

But new-look Posh defence struggled throughout and only bad luck and poor finishing stopped Cheltenham winning by a much greater margin

Posh will now almost certainly finish in fourth place as they are three points behind Bolton with a goal difference that is seven inferior, meaning Ferguson’s men would have to beat the Trotters by four goals on the final day to go above them.

Bolton can still finish second provided Derby lose at home to bottom side Carlisle and Bolton win at Posh while also managing a four-goal swing.

The result also kept the League One relegation battle alive. Cheltenham can now still survive, but they must win away at Stevenage on the final day and hope that either Burton fail to beat Fleetwood or that Cambridge lose to Port Vale.

Ferguson was left disappointed in the manner of goals his side conceded at Cheltenham. He said: “Both halves started with them getting on top of us. We couldn’t sustain any sort of control.

“The goals are terrible goals. You can’t give goals away like that. We know they would start like that and come down our throats, but we gave away two really poor goals. They got so much energy from it.

“The longer the game went without them scoring, the more chances we were going to get. We knew there was space in behind with our pace and we had five or six opportunities tonight.

“The midfielders didn’t get on it enough, we worked on the midfielders dropping in and making a back three, but we didn’t do it in the first 25 minutes.

“They put a lot of energy into the first 15 minutes of each half and to be fair, in the second, we were lucky it stayed at 2-0.

“We then get a bit of control and had one or two opportunities that would have made them really nervy as with a draw they were down.

“Jonno has had a half volley when Malik played him in, it was a great bit of play, and he’s also had a header after a great cross from Harley Mills.

“Tonight we had to rest players. Jadel has probably played a little longer than I hoped so we’ll have to assess him, but it was an opportunity for others. You don’t know what’s going to happen between now and the play-offs.

“The squad is the squad and all of the players might be needed. One of two might just have taken the opportunity a little better.

“It’s disappointing to lose because we don’t want to lose games of football. We just didn’t cope with the intensity of the opening periods even though we spoke about it to the players several times.”

Posh handed a league debut to Mills in place of captain Harrison Burrows at left back. Ferguson was pleased with the 18-year-old’s performance. He sad: “He was very, very good. He’s got a quality left foot. The defensive side he needs to work on,but we know he’s got quality.”

Posh kick-off their final game of the season at home to Bolton at 12.30pm on Saturday. The GH Display Stand will be split between the two sets of fans after Bolton were given an extra 979 tickets alongside their main stand allocation of around 1,700.