Darren Ferguson 'as disappointed as he has ever been' as Peterborough United left to rue a wasted opportunity to return to Wembley

The Posh season came to and end in front of their own fans when they failed to beat Oxford, who carried a one-goal lead into the night from the first leg at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday.

Josh Knight shot Posh into a 1-0 lead after 41 minutes, but the visitors levelled in first half stoppage time when Cameron Brannagan fired home a penalty. Posh captain Harrison Burrows was penalised for charging down a close-range free-kick with his arm.

Darren Ferguson had no complaints with the decision, but felt that his side should also have been awarded a spot kick as he claims Oxford full-back Joe Bennett blocked a Joel Randall shot with his arm.

Ferguson laid into the referee’s performance after the match and felt that Oxford were lucky to progress, such was the strength of performance from his side. The match finished 1-1 despite Posh dominating the entire second-half.

Ferguson said: “I’m proud of my team. We absolutely battered them, but you need a bit of luck in the play-offs and they got it all. The referee has missed a blatant penalty kick so unfortunately the season does end, but I’m immensely proud of my team. For 120 minutes, we’ve been by far the better team in this tie.

“At 1-0 tonight, you’re thinking ok just get to half time in front because we knew the later the game went, the more we’d be running all over them.

“Leading up to the penalty was where the mistake was made. I said just don’t take any risks now and get to half-time, but we lost the ball in the middle of the pitch. Just as we’d got Oxford where we wanted them we conceded and it deflated everyone.

“It’s a penalty, I’m not questioning that, but I am questioning the decision not to give us a penalty. We were told his arms were in a natural position, but he’s moved them towards the ball.

“We played like we have all season as we dominated the ball and then we get the goal, but conceded so quickly. That is what has cost us the tie.

“They were just dropping like flies in the second-half though and the referee was allowing it to happen and didn’t add any extra time on. He was awful. It was really, really poor officiating from him, and not for the first time.

“You have to congratulate the opponents though, they’re at Wembley, very luckily but they’re there.

“We created a lot towards the end, I just don’t know how we’ve not scored.

“We played exactly how I wanted us to play and I’m really proud of them. I have been all year, the decision we made at the end of last year has been fully justified.

“The football we’ve played has certainly been the best I’ve seen in my time here, and then you’ve got the quality of the players, their age and value but we’ve just fallen short. It’s disappointing, it’s raw right now, but we’ll just have to go again.

“It’s a missed opportunity, we were one game from Wembley and we think we were going to win at Wembley. When you have so much domination in the game, it is disappointing. If we had got a second, we’d have got a third.

“It is what it is, football is really cruel at times. This is as disappointed as I’ve been. This is such a big opportunity wasted.”

Oxford will now meet Bolton in the League One Play-Off Final on May 18 for a place in the Championship.