Leyton Orient point provides 'starting point' for Peterborough United to change the narrative of their season

Posh kept their first clean sheet of the season in a 0-0 home draw against Leyton Orient on Saturday with a backline boosted by the arrivals of Sam Hughes, Tayo Edun and Carl Johnston. Both Hughes and Edun were thrown straight in after only arriving at the club on Thursday and having played very little football between them this season.

The Posh boss was full of praise for his new recruits and insisted they can play a key role in an upturn in fortunes for the club and well as helping the younger players, who have played for the majority of the season to date, to develop.

Posh’s one point closer to safety earned at at 12:30pm was cancelled out after the 3pm kick-offs with Crawley and burton drawing. Posh remain 19th but now have Bristol Rovers above them after they claimed a vital win at home to Barnsley. Northampton have slipped to 20th after losing 1-0 at home to Lincoln.

The Posh boss was booked once again this season for leaving his technical area and watched the majority of the match from the stands.

In praise of the club’s new signing’s Darren Ferguson said: “It was an easy decision to play the three new players ant the back and you can see the difference they made.

“No disrespect to others but they were very young players and players that had never played in England, to ask them to play every week was probably a bit unfair on them.

“We needed to recruit wisely. Tayo brought so much energy down the left, he was outstanding, you know what you’re getting with Sam, he’s a defender, he heads it. He speaks in the dressing room too. He talks with sense and he’s a good age with good experience. He knows the game and will bring the young ones on, they need it.

“They both gave us personality.”

Ferguson added: “I’m never too pleased at home with a point. I know they are on a good run but in normal circumstances and us at home we would expect to win and maybe that conviction and belief in who we are in this league is lacking with the players at the moment.

“This is a real starting point and something to build on though that we haven’t had this season, a clean sheet.

“They never troubled us, you just hope for a bit more quality and composure in the last third to win the game.

There was moments, we were pushing as much as we could but lacked quality. We needed more creative play out of the midfielders.

“I can see something to build on and the clean sheet will give the players confidence hopefully.

What told I the players is ‘we’re the only ones that can change this season and perhaps, up to now, we’ve accepted it a little bit too much and we can’t accept it any longer. We have to change the narrative of the season, we have to be horrible and show we care. Today, anyone watching would think this is not a typical Peterborough performance but maybe is what we need at the moment.

“The pitch didn’t help us, the pitch is not good at the moment. We need to address that.”

Posh are in league action at home to Exeter on Tuesday. The Grecians were beaten 1-0 at Birmingham on Saturday and had defender Jak McMillan sent off in the 103rd minute.