Darren Ferguson disappointed in his side's lack of a ruthless streak and his substitutes as Peterborough United miss 'real opportunity' of Nene derby win

Posh players were left fuming at the officials in the aftermath of Mitch Pinnock’s 90th-minute winner, with Nicholas Bilokapic claiming that he had hooked the lobbed effort away before it had crossed the line.

The assistant referee, however, did not have any hesitation in giving the goal.

The 1-0 defeat still leaves Posh third in the table, level on points with new leaders Cambridge United.

Ferguson was keen to point to his side’s lack to ruthlessness for the defeat, something he warned his side about at half-time.

He said: “It’s a really sore one. It was a big game for the club and the fans. We hadn’t lost here in a while and now we have.

“I have no idea whether it crossed the line or not. I still don’t have an idea having watched the video. The linesman has made a big call from a distance that’s quite far away, but that’s not the reason why we lost.

"The quality in the final third - the tempo, the decision making and the basic quality - was not good enough. We were not ruthless enough. The game could have been over after 10 minutes as we’ve had two absolute sitters. That should kill the game.

“I told them and warned them at half-time how the game would go if we didn’t get that goal and unfortunately I was right.

"It’s a real missed opportunity to win the game.”

With Posh struggling to make a breakthrough, Ferguson made a triple change with 20 minutes to go, bringing on David Ajiboye, Ricky-Jade Jones and Joe Tomlinson in place of Joel Randall, Harrison Burrows and Ephron Mason-Clark. Posh’s most potent threat, Kwame Poku, was also moved behind Jonson Clarke-Harris from wide on the right.

Ferguson added: “Poku was the one who sped things up. He was our best attacking player, no question. Jonno didn’t get much service. Kwame got them on the backfoot, but I wanted to get freshen things up and keep pace in wide areas, we didn’t look like we were going to score when I made the subs.

"We knew he was hurting them out wide, but we wanted him to get on the ball in central areas. We knew David would cause them problems too but having Poku in the middle would have given him the chance to go either left or right.

“They didn’t have any impact on the game though, in fact quite the opposite.”

Posh will be looking to get back on track on Saturday (August 26) but will face a tough test at home to a fancied Derby side. The Rams beat Fleetwood 1-0 on Saturday thanks to a Martyn Waghorn goal.