Darren Ferguson delighted with comfortable and professional performance in much-needed Morecambe win

Peterborough United Manager Darren Ferguson gives the thumbs up at full-time at Morecambe. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com

Posh scored three times in the opening half an hour to keep themselves in the promotion running.

Goals from Jack Taylor, Joe Ward and Kwame Poku kept Posh in ninth, nine points behind Barnsley, who comfortably won 4-0 at Cheltenham.

Posh did move to within a point of Shrewsbury though, who were beaten 1-0 at Accrington, by ending their own mini blip.

Jack Taylor leads the celebrations after shooting Posh in front against Morecambe. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

Darren Ferguson said: “It was a good, comfortable result. It was three at half time and should have been more, we had a couple of unbelievable opportunities, but I can’t be critical of my team as we put in a really professional performance job. Coming away from home and winning 3-0 is a brilliant result.

"In the first half hour, we were everything we weren’t on Tuesday. We were outstanding.

"What I’ve seen in the six games I’ve been back is lads that want to listen and learn. We’ve had four away games and we’ve conceded one goal.

“Leading up to the Port Vale game, we had no clean sheets away from home and that’s changes dramatically. Four wins out of six is good. If you do that throughout a season, you’ll get to 90 points.

“The result was much-needed, we couldn’t afford anything else but a win today.”

Ferguson made two changes to the side beaten 1-0 at Fleetwood on Tuesday, bringing Josh Knight in to replace Frankie Kent and Harrison Burrows for Nathan Thompson.

That tweak saw Ward move to right back, Poku move over to the right wing and Burrows slot into the number ten role.

Ferguson added: “I just felt it was a good opportunity to give Josh Knight a chance. I’ve got good centre-halves, there’s not much differences between them and Josh deserved his chance.

"Frankie was fine with it, just disappointed as you would expect. With Harrison, simply I wanted to leave Nathan Thompson out as he’d played five games on the bounce after not playing for a long period.

"So rather than taking him all the way here, I knew I had the cover on the bench. Behind Jonson Clarke-Harris, we’ve got really good flexibility and I’m pleased with that.”

Posh are next in action at home to second-placed Plymouth on Saturday (February 25).