Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson insists he is up for the challenge but 'fully aware' he needs to start winning matches
Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson is fully aware that he needs to start winning matches and fast.
Posh have now started the new season with eight winless games (seven defeats and a draw) in all competitions after opening their Vertu Trophy campaign with a 3-1 home defeat to Leyton Orient on Tuesday night. This is on top on finishing last season winless in five.
To rub salt into the wounds, Posh were beaten by an Orient side who made 11 changes from Saturday’s League One fixture are were reduced to ten men after just 26 minutes. The visitors still managed to take the lead with a stunning first half free-kick and added a further two in the second half after Harley Mills had registered his first goal since last season’s final in this competition to draw Posh level in first half stoppage time.
After the match, Ferguson insisted that he remains up the for the challenge but he is aware of the pressure that is building around his own position. He did also reveal that Posh will be boosted by the return to fitness of Alex Bass ahead of Saturday’s trip to face Huddersfield Town.
He said: “I’ve got to try and help the players the best I can. I’ve got a lot of experience. It is really tough, it has been tough for a long period. I need to consider everything and have a good think about it. I’ve got a bit of thinking to do here.
“Results do change things very quickly and we have to get one very quickly. We have to fight and try to overcome this big challenge. If that’s not good enough then it’s not good enough but I am still optimistic that it can be. I've got vast experience of both successful and not successful periods and have to use that as best I can.
“I have to get them going again, I’m going to need help but now the window is shut, I can get what I feel is my best team on the pitch.
“I have had this challenge before. One year, we lost our first seven games in the Championship. We are nearly at that point now and we should have, in any other season, overcome it back then. I’m not stupid, we are going to be getting massively criticised and the focus will be really on me in terms of what happens next. I am up for the challenge and fully aware that I need to start winning games soon.
“We are clearly a team bereft of all confidence and belief, we are unrecognisable. We have really started the season badly and tonight we were well beaten against ten men.
“We got a break with the red card and you are thinking go on and win the game to boost confidence but it goes horribly wrong. In some sense, it put more pressure on us as we were expected to win against ten. It couldn’t have gone any worse.
“The players have got to help themselves. When they went down to ten men, it almost felt as if we had ten men with the way they were popping it around us.
“We have to try and embrace the challenge in front of us and clearly the players are struggling with it at the moment. Maybe it’s a kickback from last season as a lot of the boys that started tonight were here then.
“The manner of the goals were horrendous. Both goals in the second half were awful. For the second, there’s four of my players around him, but he still gets the shot away, then there’s no-one in the middle of the pitch for the third goal. It’s another poor performance and poor night.
“We went 4-2-4 at the end but we didn’t have many moments of quality. Donay and Gustav have had good chances when clean through but that’s where we are at in this moment. “Even before ten men, we weren’t great, they pressed us and we couldn’t beat it
“The players need a bit of support. I hope we have that now with Tom and Jacob, they are experienced and winners. The new lads did fine, it was a difficult game for Harry and Jimmy-Jay, but they will bring in a bit more quality. Gustav looked better with another striker, given the limited opportunities he had.
“We are in a bad moment and I have to find a way of getting us out of it. This is why we brought 16 players in since the summer. We have to have to find a way to shake this off. I need to see players playing with more personality."