Peterborough United will take a bad defeat on the chin and be ready for a big game at Rotherham United on Sunday

Posh were beaten 3-0 at the Weston Homes Stadium by out-of-form opponents. It was a first home defeat in any competition since the opening day of the season as Posh failed to score in back-to-back matches since August.

Posh have dropped two places to fourth ahead of their game at fifth-placed Rotherham. Ex-Posh player Kieran Sadlier made it four goals in his last three appearances against Posh with a brace. Ben Whiteman added a classy third goal late on.

Ferguson was obviously disappointed with the result and the performance, but there will certainly be no overreaction from the boss.

“It’s a bad defeat,” Ferguson admitted, “But w’ll take it on the chin, dust ourselves down and be ready to take on a very good Rotherham side.

“Credit to Doncaster for a very good win - they certainly celebrated as though it was a good one - but it’s often how you react to bad results which determine how good a season you have and I know I have players good enough to bounce back quickly.

“They reacted well to the defeat at home on the first day of the season and I expect a similar reaction now.

“It was never a 3-0 game, but it’s all about the scoreline in the end. Goals change games and their first one gave them a lift, while the second one came at a crucial time because we had started the second-half very well.

“We didn’t create enough in the first-half, but we are confident shooting towards our own fans as we were in the second-half. We had 18 shots on goal so you’d think we would score one at least.

“But I’m not concerned. All the top teams will lose games. It’s going to be a very tight league and we just need to make sure we bounce back well at Rotherham. The most important things are to keep creating chances and to keep clean sheets, things we didn’t do well enough today.

“We lacked some magic in the final third and their first and third goals were clinical finishes, but the second one was a bad one to concede from a set-piece. Kieran Sadlier just keeps scoring against us. I’ll have to look back at his first goal because we appeared to give him too much time to shoot and the ball travelled quickly over the surface.”

George Boyd and Frazer Blake-Tracy both returned to the squad today following injuries and both appeared as second-half substitutes. Captain Mark Beevers didn’t play because of his calf injury and is a doubt for the trip to Rotherham.

Midfielder Serhat Tasdemir missed today’s game because of a minor hip injury.