Darren Ferguson delighted Peterborough United have taken the play-off race to the final day, but he was disappointed his side lacked a killer touch against Bristol Rovers

Posh missed an opportunity to catch sixth-placed Derby County on Saturday. The Rams drew 1-1 at home to Portsmouth, but Posh failed to take advantage as they were held to a goalless draw by 15th-placed Bristol Rovers at the Weston Homes Stadium.

It’s now a straight shootout next Sunday for the final play-off place between Posh and Derby as Bolton Wanderers secured their place in the post-season action with a 2-0 home win over Fleetwood.

Derby, who have a two-point lead over Posh and a three-goal advantage in goal difference, travel to third-placed Sheffield Wednesday, while Posh are at fourth-placed Barnsley.

But Ferguson insists he is delighted his side even have a chance of winning promotion back to the Championship with one game to go.

“This was a missed opportunity 100 per cent, because if we win today we’re level with Derby,” Ferguson stated.

“But Derby, with the resources they’ve got, the pressure on them is going to be enormous – and maybe there will not be so much pressure on us.

“We have to make sure we go and win because certain things can happen. The scenario could be we score early at Barnsley and that makes everyone nervous at Hillsborough. We have to do that.

"It’s going to the last day though and when I walked in, I would have taken that. “It’s hard to get a team in bad form going, but we’ve managed it. It was my biggest challenge as a manager and I’ve given everything.

“It would not be a massive surprise for us to beat Barnsley and for Derby lose to Sheffield Wednesday. It’s a big advantage to Derby so we have to hope we win and they lose, but stranger things have happened.

“We just have to beat Barnsley. We can’t control anything outside of what we do. If we don’t do our job - like we didn’t today - then we aren’t going to get in the play-offs.

“I’m sure we will take fans in numbers to Barnsley. Our fans were magnificent today. They drove us on, they kept going, they were really good. That’s the best they’ve been this season and it’s just a pity we couldn’t get a goal for them.

“We haven’t scored in three games out of the last four, which is unusual for us. We haven’t scored in six games at home since I’ve been back either, which really isn’t a good stat. I have to put that down to us not scoring from set pieces.

“We have to score from open play. We had 12 corners today and we didn’t make their goalkeeper make a save. The number I could give you for the corners we have taken and not scored from this season is incredible.

"Over the course of the season, you have to get your fair share of goals from set-pieces. It’s one reason why we are getting so many blanks.

“We started very well, but there were periods where we became too frantic.

“The fans were brilliant. When Derby were getting beaten you could feel it and I think the players felt it and they got tense for 15 minutes in the first half, I was trying to calm them down. We got control back, but we were lacking in the final ball, final shot and set pieces. We just didn’t have the killer touch today.

“I can’t fault the players, until the last second they gave absolutely everything. They couldn’t have given any more to try and win a game of football.”

Posh will now travel to Oakwell next Sunday (May 7, noon kick off) to face Barnsley knowing that anything less than a win will mean they will definitely be playing in League One next season.