Is the Peterborough United defence holding a gifted young side back?

A late goal from Fernandez couldn’t save Posh from a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Reading at the Weston Homes Stadium on Saturday, leaving the team without a clean sheet in 16 League One games. Every other team in the division bar Shrewsbury (1) has kept at least three clean sheets this season.

To complete an up and down day for Fernandez he was also cautioned in the final moments yesterday and will now be suspended from the League One home game with Burton Albion on Wednesday, December 4 after collecting five yellow cards.

"We played well,” Fernandez insisted. “We had the majority of the ball, we played through them at the right time and we created chances, but we couldn’t quite find a finish. But we can’t blame the strikers. We need to be better defensively and we need to start claiming clean sheets. We are not going to score, five or six goals every game so we just have to get better at the back. Conceding goals like we did ruined our momentum.

"I am convinced we are going to be fine when we find that consistency. We are a young team and once we start being more consistent the sky’s the limit. It’s just a shame I didn’t score a few minutes earlier as they might then have come under pressure. I didn’t think the defender would expect me to shoot on my left foot so I did.

"We’ll stick together now, dust ourselves down and go again.”

Fernandez has scored four League One goals this season, just one fewer than Ricky-Jade Jones and Malik Mothersille.