Beautiful football alone won't win you promotion, saves of the season, why selling Ronnie is an understandable act of self-harm and, if anyone asks, Kioso is rubbish

For the sheer beauty and bravery of their football it’s where they belong, although that alone won’t take you to automatic promotion.

You also need a team that can dig in and fight at little grounds with small crowds where a biting, cold wind is swirling and the home side are loading your penalty area with giants and delivering accurate set-pieces. Trips to Fleetwood in other words.

So Posh passed another test yesterday. It was a game they should have won handsomely, but it was also a game that would have finished 1-1 without the excellence of goalkeeper Nicholas Bilokapic.

The Posh attacking players have rightly attracted attention for their quality and speed, but Posh also have the third best defensive record in the division. They’ve kept clean sheets in four of their last five League One matches, all of which have been won.

TALKING POINTS FROM FLEETWOOD 0, POSH 1…

1) It’s some skill for a goalkeeper to have nothing to do except play short passes for an hour and then be alert enough to pull off a worldie save. The press had a great view of Fleetwood substitute Maleace Asamoah’s brilliant 25 yard strike at the Posh goal. The ball was sailing to the top corner with the home fans waiting to stand and applaud when Bilokapic thrust out a long arm and tipped the ball over the bar. Great concentration allied to elastic athleticism saved the day for Posh. The young Aussie has had handling and kicking difficulties at times this season, but he’s had an excellent couple of weeks. He also showed good reactions in added time when home defender Ben Heneghan headed at goal from close range. Even considering the class and quality of the Posh approach play in this game, their goalkeeper ended up as a strong man of the match contender.

2) Mind you the save of the season arrived at the other when Jay Lynch somehow kept out a close range header from Ricky-Jade Jones after a perfect cross from Joel Randall. You could argue Jones should have scored, but he didn’t do a lot wrong. It was just a sensational save.

3) Posh named the same starting line-up for the fifth League One match in a row yesterday. The first XI is picking itself, but four games in 10 days starting at Shrewsbury next Saturday will be a test, especially as the last two are against promotion rivals Barnsley and Derby. One frustration at the lack of a killer instinct in front of goal is a reduction in game time for those on the bench. Manager Darren Ferguson, understandably, likes to keep his best players on the field in tight games. He didn’t make a substitution until the 84th minute yesterday. He could have made several at half-time and given breathers to those most in need – Ricky-Jade Jones is running himself into the ground in most matches – if Posh had taken just half of their scoring opportunities.

4) Posh are the leading scorers in League One with 41 goals and yet their top scorers are Kwame Poku and Ephron Mason-Clark with just seven apiece. Goals are coming from all areas. Twelve different players have scored for Posh in League One matches this season. Midfielder Archie Collins was the matchwinner yesterday with his third goal of the season.

5) I pity the player that comes in to replace Ronnie Edwards in January. Ferguson has touched on the subject before stating the probably impossibility of finding someone so accomplished on the ball who also defends so superbly, and who is available to a League One club. If Posh had been mid-table now – as some of us fools predicted – I’d be relaxed about letting Edwards leave, but now it seems like an act of self-harm by a serious promotion contender, albeit an understandable one given the player is worthy of a far bigger stage and his current club rightly don’t want to get in the way of what should be an outstanding career.

6) I’m not sure new Rotherham United manager Leam Richardson reads this page, but, just in case, Peter Kioso is nowhere near good enough for the Championship so he needs to stay at London Road to continue his development. It’s difficult to remember a loan player become so popular so quickly. That’s what passion, commitment and an exciting style of play brings.

7) Tactical note. Teams like to target Posh left-back Harrison Burrows aerially and Fleetwood tried it yesterday by placing Jayden Stockley on his side of the pitch for goal-kicks and free-kicks. But Posh gave Hector Kyprianou the job of marking him and a sound job he did with Burrows sweeping up behind them effectively.

8) Stat attack. Posh had 12 corners yesterday and 10 of them probably failed to beat the first defender. Posh had 72% possession yesterday according to the BBC. It was enough to move Posh (58.29% average possession) into second place in the League One possession stats behind leaders Portsmouth (58.62%).

9) Former Posh League One golden boot winner Jack Marriott must have cast an envious eye on the chances his old club created yesterday, while he fed on scraps. Marriott was excited ‘to join a project’ when he signed for Fleetwood. Instead he has joined a relegation battle that could well be lost.