Darren Ferguson to try and lift Jonson Clarke-Harris after Bristol Rovers 'mistake' leads to breakdown of potential move

Clarke-Harris was all set to join Rovers after Posh accepted a bid believed in the region on £800,000 on Friday’s deadline day, however, the move collapsed after 11pm when the Gas failed to complete the paperwork on time.

Clarke-Harris had left Posh’s base at Portsmouth and remained absent for Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Fratton Park following the breakdown of the move. Instead, Ephron Mason-Clark filled the role on central striker as Posh retained Ricky-Jade Jones on the wing from Tuesday’s EFL Cup victory over the same opponents.

Bristol Rovers released a statement on Saturday afternoon confirming their attempts to sign the 29-year-old but the club blamed “late changes to the deal” that prevented it from being completed.

Speaking about what was a hectic ending to the transfer window, Ferguson insisted that Posh could have done nothing more to make the deal happen.

He said: “It was a very hectic last day but up until ten to 11, it was quite smooth.

“Jonno travelled with the team in the morning, we had the team meeting about Portsmouth and he would have been in the team, he played very well last week.

“At about five o’clock the chairman told me there might be a chance that he’ll get permission to talk to Bristol and at quarter to six, I went down to see him and we agreed it was the right time for him to move on.

“He was getting a three year deal at 29, which is very good, and a large part of his family is down there.

“He got in the car, Liz (Elsom, Head of Football Operations) sent over the agreement at 8:30, which they agreed with and told us so at nine o’clock. At ten to 11, we were told he was still not registered.

“Before 11, you can put a request in to get another 15 minutes and they didn’t do that until 20 past 11. Unbelievable, we were just like ‘what?’

“They just failed to get him registered, nothing else can be done.

"That’s the danger if you leave it until the last minute to try and sign someone rather than doing it three or four days previous. That’s the risk they run and they’ve made a mistake. We did everything we could.”

Posh have now ended the window with three strikers after bringing in Jacob Wakeling from Swindon on Friday and confirming the signing of former Chelsea forward Malik Mothersille prior to Saturday’s kick-off.

Kabongo Tshimanga was also allowed to leave to join Fleetwood Town on loan.

Ferguson added: “Jonno is back with us, I spoke to him at quarter past 11 and you can imagine how he was. I felt for him because it was a blow. I’ll have to manage that situation.

“Obviously he wasn’t going to play today after that, his head wasn’t there after that and he’d been travelling so much.

“I have to speak to him tonight and lift him, he’s very down but he’s 29- he’s not a kid and he’ll get on with it and he knows he’s got competition now. He’ll be fine with that.

“I’ve got many choices now about who I play up front and we’ve now got pace and youth, which is exactly what I want.

"That doesn’t mean he won’t play again, that would be foolish, so he’ll just get on with it.”

“The chairman was brilliant because he went and got two players in before Jonno signed. I thought he might have pulled out of one of those deals but credit to him.

"We let Kabby go because the move has just not worked out for him.”