Darren Ferguson calls for consistency from his Peterborough United side as they look to put together a winning run

Darren Ferguson has said that the next step for his side is finding consistency after an impressive win against Millwall on Saturday (December 11).
Darren Ferguson watches on during Posh's last away trip, at Nottingham Forest. Photo: Joe Dent.Darren Ferguson watches on during Posh's last away trip, at Nottingham Forest. Photo: Joe Dent.
Darren Ferguson watches on during Posh's last away trip, at Nottingham Forest. Photo: Joe Dent.

Posh showed fighting spirit to comeback from 1-0 down to grab a deserved victory against the Lions. This has presented Darren Ferguson’s men with the opportunity to win back-to-back matches for only the second time this season. It also ended a seven-match winless run and a five-match goalless run.

Given that Posh face Blackpool on Saturday (December 18), who have not won in seven and not scored in four themselves, and Reading, who sit in 21st, on Boxing Day, optimism is high that Posh can start to put together a winning run.

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Ferguson has called for his side to take one game at a time but the first thing he wants to see is consistency. He said: “The difference this Saturday is that we managed to do the hardest thing and get the goals, so I was delighted with the performance Saturday and we thoroughly deserved the win. We got a little bit of a break with the own goal, but we were overdue one, there’s no doubt about that.

“The thing about the division is if you can go on a run of two or three wins on the bounce, it makes a huge difference and that’s what we’ve got to try and do. All games are difficult in this league but if we manage to go to Blackpool and get a win, then hopefully that will continue filling us with confidence going into the Boxing Day fixture against Reading but we’re only looking at it one day at a time.

“The most important message from me to the players is if we get to the level of performance that we did on Saturday, then I think we will win games.

“Any win we get in this division, we have to perform at a very high level and when we have won games, we’ve done that. We have to do it on a more consistent basis. They key to us now is getting consistency in our performances because we’re seeing now if we drop below that, we’re getting beat and that’s just the way the league is unfortunately.”

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Posh have also been boosted by the fact, perhaps for the first time this season, the team and shape looks settled, with the diamond bringing in an upturn in performances, especially on the road in the first half against Nottingham Forest. Jack Taylor has put together two of his best performances, in a stop-start season for him personally, at the tip of the diamond and Jorge Grant produced a breakthrough performance on Saturday.

Ferguson added: “I’ve thought about the diamond for a while now, it’s just making sure you have the correct players to play it. It’s a formation I personally really like but for a couple of seasons before now we’ve probably not had the personnel to play it but now we have and it’s just about getting the right balance in the team and it’s worked.

“We’ve got others that can play it as well and I think I had to find a way of controlling games more and making more chances and we’ve managed to do that. We’ve had 21 shots on Saturday, which tells it’s own story and credit to the players, they’ve taken to the system very well and we’ve always got the flexibility to change it within a minute so hopefully we just continue with the performances, that’s the most important thing, not the formation.”

A win for Posh on Saturday will move them out of the bottom three ater Reading’s match against Luton was postponed after a number of Covid cases were found in the Royals’ side.