Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson heaped praise onto his players after back-to-back home wins lifted them out of the Championship relegation zone for the first time this season
Posh beat Derby 3-0 at London Road yesterday (October 27) with two goals from Saido Berahino and another from Michael Bostwick to climb into 21st place ahead of next Saturday’s crunch game at fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday.
And Ferguson reckons his players have shown ‘tremendous bottle’ to win four of their last six matches after losing their first seven games of the season.
Ferguson said; “I was never worried when we lost seven games in a row to start the season. We were getting written off in some quarters and quite rightly, but I knew I had a Championship team in that dressing room.
“In hindsight the Wolves game (Posh lost 2-0) did me a huge favour, There was so much wrong with that performance it forced me into making numerous changes.
“I never felt under pressure because I knew I would be judged at the end of the season rather than after seven matches, but I knew I had a fair bit to sort out.
“And all credit to the players because they have shown some tremendous bottle in the last few weeks. We have won four out of six matches which is excellent form and in my mind we should be unbeaten in the last six because we have played well in all of them.
“It’s obviously great to be out of the bottom three, but I’m still taking the long-term view. We are three points nearer the target of 50 points after beating Derby and if we reach that target we will not be relegated.
“We have a big game coming up at Sheffield, but the result there won’t be decisive. What we have done in recent games is brought a lot of teams closer to us even though they are still ahead of us and we need to keep them in our sights as well as those below us.”
Ferguson was delighted Posh ended Derby’s five-game unbeaten run. He rates ‘The Rams’ as a good Championship outfit. Posh won 3-0 despite Lee Tomlin missing a second-half penalty and despite golden boy George Boyd limping off midway through the second half with the game still in the balance at 1-0.
Derby defender Jake Buxton’s second-half dismissal for collecting two cautions helped Posh pull clear in the latter stages. Posh are now three points off 15th place and six off 12th place in the Championship table.
Ferguson added: “We defended well when we had to and we created chances when we enjoyed good possession. That’s the mark of a good side and of a good performance.
“Derby had good spells of possession, but I expected that as they are a very good side.
“Scoring the penalty would have made the second-half much more comfortable, but we didn’t let the miss affect us and that was pleasing.”
Ferguson is confident Boyd will be fit for the trip to Hillsborough next Saturday (November 3) as will midfielder Bostwick who took a couple of heavy knocks during the Derby match.
Comments