Darren Ferguson praises his Peterborough United players for battling back for 'as important a win as we have had all season'

All of the hard work of the ground staff to get the game on despite freezing temperatures throughout the week was rewarded as Posh came from behind to beat their visitors.

The sides only met in League One on December 23 and just as on that day, Posh fell behind to a Jordan Shipley goal and had to fightback for a 2-1 victory. Joel Randall and Josh Knight scored the goals on this occasion.

The win seemed all the more crucial for Posh as promotion rivals Derby were held 0-0 at Lincoln and Bolton were beaten 1-0 at Leyton Orient.

Portsmouth beat Fleetwood, however, so Posh remain a point off top spot with a game in hand, but have established a two-point buffer over Derby in third.

Bolton and Derby are both in action midweek, against Cheltenham and Reading respectively, but only Derby can now overtake Posh with a win.

Ferguson hailed the ability of his players for finding a way to get the win.

He said: “I’m delighted and really proud of the players. It’s a very important win. It’s as important a win as we have had all season.

“These are games you’ve just got to find a way of winning. Not every game is going to be so easy on the eye, creating chance after chance.

"There was a lot play in front of them, they’ve come and set their stall out early doors. They just wanted to sit in and pump it forward to be a threat from set-pieces and they’ve scored from one so I suppose their plan worked to a degree.

"They just sat in and we had all of the ball, but it was a bit too slow and we can’t use the pitch as an excuse.

“The worst thing about the first half was conceding a really soft goal as that gave them something to hang onto.

"When the ball changed hands in transition we looked a threat. The first big chance was Ricky’s. He’s got to take it round the goalkeeper as he’s that close to him and if that goes in, their game plan has to change and we’d have exploited the space they may have left.

"We found a way though and it’s so important to have that character the boys have shown. “We spoke at half time about changing a few things and how we wanted to play in behind them a bit more and stretch them and we looked a threat when we did that.

“The first goal was delightful, it looks easy. but it wasn’t. It’s a great run from Jadel Katongo and a great pass from David Ajiboye and Jadel has then just passed it in. What a cross, and Randall has just finished it. Joel was brilliant in the second half. He was a real threat.

“We were prepared to changed formation if we didn’t start well in the second half, but we didn’t have to and we deserved to win the game.

“Credit to Dale Tonge for the second goal. He’s an excellent coach and works really hard on set-pieces.

“When Joel hit the post (in stoppage time) I was thinking ‘please no’ because they are so big so we brought Manny on, went to a back three and tried to see it out and we managed to do that.”

Posh will play their rearranged EFL Trophy last 16 tie at home to Crawley Town Tuesday before travelling to Lincoln for a League One game next Saturday.