Darren Ferguson satisfied with Accrington Stanley win, but he wants a more ruthless approach from his Peterborough United side to avoid nervy finishes

Posh kept up their play-off push as first-half goals from Jonson Clarke-Harris and Ephron Mason-Clark secured victory despite heavy pressure and a late reply from the home side.

The win moved Posh up a place to fifth, one point clear of their immediate pursuers Bolton Wanderers and Derby County. Bolton were held to a 1-1 draw at Burton, while Derby won 2-1 at Exeter City.

The win was a much-needed bounce back from defeat at Cambridge on Saturday ahead of the visit of second-placed Ipswich Town on Saturday.

Bolton and Derby both face home games on Saturday, against Shrewsbury and Burton Albion respectively.

Ferguson said: “It was a little bit too nervy for my liking. That’s what you get with a two-goal lead as the next goal is the most important one and (Accrington manager) John Coleman’s teams always keep going. I didn’t think Saturday’s result (a 5-2 home defeat to Fleetwood) would do us any favours as I knew there would be a reaction.

“Saying that, we controlled this first half quite well, but we just weren’t ruthless. We could have put them to the sword. In the first 10 minutes of the second half, we started really well, but again we weren’t ruthless enough. That’s something we need to change. When we get opportunities we need to put teams to bed. We didn’t do that tonight and that’s why we were hanging on a bit.

“Accrington are a very dangerous team as they got bodies forward, they put the ball in the box and they eventually scored from doing that. We were hanging on a bit at the end when we really shouldn’t have been. We were only hanging on because we weren’t ruthless enough and we didn’t make the correct decisions.

“When it goes to 2-0, I was thinking let’s go and kill the game off because we knew they would come and press us and that would give us opportunities if we could beat their press with the pace we’ve got, but unfortunately, we couldn’t manage it. We had opportunities in the first 15 minutes of the second half to do it, but didn’t.

“I can’t be too critical though, it’s a fantastic win for us. Whenever you come here and win, it’s a great result because I haven’t had many here.”

Ferguson made one change to his side from Saturday’s derby disappointment, bringing in Hector Kyprianou in place of Harrison Burrows and moving Jack Taylor forward into the number ten role.

Ferguson added: “Hector was excellent. He controlled the game and his passing and movement were good. Jack as a ten was very good in the first half too. Those three (Taylor, Norburn and Kyprianou) were good in there and when we moved the ball quickly we gave them problems.

“We’ve got six wins and a draw from the last eight games. The form we’ve shown has got us into a good position and we’ll just take it a game at a time. There’s going to be no let up from us. We’ll get a bit of rest into the players and then go again.”