MATCH REACTION: '˜Terrible' Peterborough United disappoint the boss

Late replacement George Moncur in action for Posh at Fleetwood. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

Posh went down 2-0 at the Highbury Stadium, a result that dropped them to 11th ahead of their big derby re-union with Northampton Town at the ABAX Stadium on Tuesday (October 18).

For the second successive Saturday, Posh conceded a goal in the opening three minutes, but this time there was no fightback.

Posh still haven’t won back-to-back League One games this season, although they were hit hard before kick off when top scorer Marcus Maddison pulled out of the game at 2.30pm because of illness.

Posh full-back Hayden White battles for possession with Bobby Grant of Fleetwood. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

McCann said: “Marcus picked up a bug overnight and and having to change the side so late obviously didn’t help us, but that’s not an excuse for this result.

“It should never be about one man. Apart from George Moncur replacing Marcus at the last minute it was the same team who played well and beat Bury.

“But we were terrible all over the pitch today. We started badly again when we showed an alarming lack of concentration, but whereas last week we fought back, we never looked like doing that today.

“We huffed and puffed in the first half and had a couple of half chances, but in the second-half we were very, very poor.

“We played with no energy and no tempo. We made some daft decisions. I shouldn’t be having to tell my centre halves to go forward for a set-piece in the last minute of the first-half when we were 1-0 down.

“We shouldn’t be taking short corners when we are 2-0 down with a minute to go either.

“The lack of consistency is a concern. Jimmy Ryan ran the game for Fleetwood today. I’ve told Chris Forrester and Leo Da Silva Lopes that’s the standard you will face every week in this division.

“Players like Ryan perform like that every week. We are not doing that.

“It’s also obviously a huge concern that our strikers aren’t scoring, but we will keep plugging away.

“Maybe Northampton at home is the ideal fixture for us now. It’s the chance to get this game out of our system and give our fans something to cheer about as they had nothing to cheer about today.

“But Fleetwood away is also a big game. You get three points just the same and we fell well short today.”

Centre-back Michael Bostwick didn’t travel to the game because of a virus. He and Maddison should return to the squad for the Cobblers match.