Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson confused as 'inconsistent' refereeing sees just three second half added minutes

Posh boss Darren Ferguson in no way blamed the decision of the officials to add such a short amount of time for Posh’s failure to win the match but did admit to being confused by it.

Despite six substitutions being made across four blocks in the second half as well as a number of injury stoppages and slow restarts from throw-ins, just three minutes were added in the second half and just two in the first half by referee Scott Tallis.

The Posh boss questioned the lack of consistency when asked after the match and said that the board going up actually deflated his side who were chasing the winning goal to break the 1-1-1 deadlock.

Ferguson said: “The problem is that when you change rules, it can open up a problem and that’s what we’re now finding.

“We’ve gone from being told there’s going to be huge amounts of injury time; which is fine. I accept that no problem.

“I didn’t think it was a bad thing actually, it made some games quite exciting,

“When we played Birmingham in pre-season, there would have been 16 minutes of injury time if it was a normal game. We were going to have to accept that but we’ve gone from that to today, where there was eight substitutions and only three added minutes.

“The correct word could be inconsistent, I don’t think anyone could believe it.

“In a game like today, we needed the amount of time it should have been because when you get to the last minute at home and you’re chasing a game, if the board goes up showing seven or eight minutes- like it probably should have been- it gets everyone going. It makes a difference.

“The three had the opposite effect, it flattened everyone. There was quite a number of people sitting near me that left because they were probably thinking it was going to be seven of eight.

“That’s not the reason we didn’t win the game but it is hugely inconsistent.”

When asked if he shared Darren Ferguson’s surprise at the decision, Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens said: “I was surprised we didn’t get a penalty (following Kioso’s tackle on Archibald early in the second half).

“The referee had a fair game, he made mistakes for both teams at times and was good for both teams at times.

"I don’t keep a record of things like that, whatever the ref puts up we’ll go with it.”