MATCH REACTION: Peterborough United lack intelligence, commitment and backbone, and they weren't brave enough either

A first-half deflected goal from former Posh striker Kyle Vassell clinched the points for a team that had lost their three previous League One games.

Posh have now won just one of their last eight in the division and have slipped to 11th in the table ahead of another match at the ABAX Stadium against Portsmouth on Tuesday (November 21).

And Posh boss McCann didn’t hold back after the game.

“I’m really disappointed,” McCann stated. “In the first half we were really poor. We played with no tempo and they just passed the ball around us because we didn’t have the commitment or aggression to track runners.

“In the second half we were better, but we didn’t test their goalkeeper at all. We kept getting into good areas, but we didn’t have players brave enough to get on the end of crosses.

“Marcus Maddison was causing them problems, but we lacked the intelligence to keep feeding him the ball. There were times when we could have got the ball to him, but instead turned around and passed it somewhere else.

“We still had chances to score though. Jack Marriott should have scored twice.

“We hadn’t lost in our five previous matches and maybe some players thought thay had cracked it, but if we are serious about promotion we need to find more backbone because that wasn’t good enough today.”

McCann sprang a pre-match surprise by starting with Andrew Hughes at left wing-back rather than Gwion Edwards. Edwards, who missed the FA Cup win at Tranmere last week because of a slight injury, came on at half time as Posh switched to a 4-4-2 formation.

“The change at half-time worked well for us,” McCann added. “Getting Gwion on helped us as did moving Marcus a bit wider.

“Gwion was fit enough to start, but Andrew Hughes was outstanding at Tranmere and if it had been the other way round with Gwion playing well at Tranmere I wouldn’t have dropped him either.

“Of course I’ll take some stick because we lost, but it’s easy with hindsight. We didn’t lose because of the shape, we lost because a team we lacked sharpness and cohesion.

“I will take my share of the responsibility as the manager, but the players have to take some responsibility as well.

“I don’t like saying these things as they are a good group, but that first half wasn’t acceptable. We know what Kyle Vassell is all about, but we let him bully us.”

Posh are just three points from the play-off places.