Peterborough United boss labels his side 'miles off it' as they put in their worst performance of the season in Burton Albion defeat

Posh were beaten 1-0 at home by the Brewers with Ferguson accepting his team were miles off their usual levels. He described the performance as the worst of the season as Burton won for just the second time in League One this season.

Posh struggled to create chances throughout and rarely troubled Max Crocombe in the Burton goal before they were consigned to defeat to defeat by Mason Bennett’s 64th minute effort. It was a second successive home defeat in the league for Posh who have slipped to 15th in the table, just three points above Monday’s opponents Northampton Town, who are in the relegation zone, and nine points off the play-offs.

Ferguson was not happy with a number of aspects of his team’s performance and refused to blame the defeat on the decision of referee Darren Drysdale to wave play on when Crocombe charged out of his box and appeared to save a Kwame Poku effort with his hand early in the first half. Poku immediately limped off to add to Posh woes.

Ferguson said: “We were miles away, it was our worst performance of the season. The goalkeeper should have been sent off as he’s clearly used his hand to stop the ball going into the net, but it would be wrong of me to come out and criticise the referee too much when we have put in a performance like that.

“In terms of how we want to play, creating things, we were miles away and that makes it an unusual game for us because normally we create goals and plenty of chances. I could just smell it after about 10 minutes. They let us have it at the back, they blocked off the middle of the pitch and they were aggressive in wide areas.

“We just couldn’t get any rhythm into our game and break down their press. We did it at times, but the speed wasn’t there. It was just a really poor performance. You do get that, teams can have poor performances, but when you do get one as poor as that, you have to make sure you scrap a goal and win the game. We did not do that and we lost an awful goal again which gives them something to hang onto which just added to the difficulty.

“It was a really, really poor performance and they deserved to win. They grew in confidence as the game went on whereas we’ve probably lost some.

“Our speed of play wasn’t quick enough. Kwame came off injured and I changed shape to try and get something different because I could see we weren’t playing quick enough to break them down. We got a bit more control, but still didn’t create much. The players have to have more urgency. We are very reactive as opposed to being proactive at the moment.

“We had a lot of misplaced passes and errors. We can’t be expected to create 25-30 chances every game, but when you play that badly, you have to get the win somehow. I can’t remember a clear chance, which is unusual for us.

“This is an important month given the fact we’ve been so inconsistent. We’ve lost eight games and we’re not kidding ourselves, the season has gone really, really poorly up to now, but it can happen. We have no divine right to be fighting for promotion every single season. I’m not saying we won’t be ,but at the moment, we’re way off it. I’ve just said to the players, we have to get through this challenge together.”

Posh could fall as low as 19th in the table before they play again.