Darren Ferguson delighted with his Peterborough United players for answering call to improve away form

Posh moved just a point from the summit of League One on Saturday thanks to a 2-1 win at Charlton Athletic coupled with a shock 3-0 home defeat for Portsmouth against Leyton Orient and an abandonment for Bolton Wanderers who were at home to Cheltenham Town.

Ephron Mason-Clark scored twice, either side of Alfie’s May’s equaliser to seal a fourth consecutive away for Posh win to follow on from victories at Derby, Fleetwood and Shrewsbury, which all came after Ferguson appealed for his side to show more consistency on the road.

Posh have now picked up 27 points on their travels, the second most in the division after Derby County (28).

Ferguson was pleased with his side’s first half performance at the Valley, but was once again left to rue missed chances as Posh ended the game hanging on to all three points against a home side who improved considerably in the second-half.

Ferguson said: “Coming into the Christmas period, we spoke about improving our away form and we’ve certainly done that. Four away wins on the bounce is very impressive.

“We deserved to win this game, but we are just lacking the ability to finish teams off, as I’ve said many times before. We dug it out in the end though.

“We were completely dominant in the first half there was no real threat against us defensively. We got the goal - with a very good finish from Ephron - and wanted to get that second goal.

“Ephron is a good player. He’s so strong mentally because he gets kicked all over the place, but he gets up and gets on with it. He scored two today and he’s on 13 goals now in a very good season.

“The home crowd had turned and booed their players off at the break. We had two chances to score at the start of the second-half, but they went down the other end and Alfie May scores against me, as he always does.

"They had a bit of momentum then, but we had four chances to score in 10 seconds and missed them all. A second goal then would have killed their momentum

“But they were then on top, we lost control and they were running after us, chasing us and pressing us. They were good in the first 15 minutes of the second half. They were very enthused by their goal, but it made it an open goal which suited us.

“We kept counter attacking and I felt we would score and we did. They had a couple of moments after that after we made mistakes. We were so careless at times and they are very good in transition.

“It was a very good win though because, although Charlton are not going so well, I think Michael will get there with this club. They’ve got to be patient, he’s a good manager and with the signings they’ve made it’s just the start. They’re going to have a go.”

Posh will return to action on Saturday (January 20) when they host Shrewsbury who were beaten 1-0 at home by Stevenage on Saturday.