Peterborough United boss rues lack of quality in transition after his side concede late equaliser
Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson felt his side had enough openings to beat Stockport County at the Weston Homes Stadium on Good Friday.
Posh led from the 43rd minute, when Ricky-Jade Jones scored a one-on-one, right up until the first minute of stoppage time when Jack Diamond fired in an equaliser from the edge of the box to make the final score 1-1.
The Posh boss was disappointed with his side’s lack of quality in transition, insisting that many opportunities to get in behind the Stockport defence were missed. The result, coupled with those elsewhere in the league, still means Posh have work to do to stay in the division.
Posh dropped a place to 17th, but maintained a six-point advantage over the bottom four, and they have a game in on many of the teams around them.
Ferguson said: “It is frustrating, there have been a few games lately where we’ve lost late goals, like Exeter and Wycombe off the top of my head.
“We were poor in transition when we are normally so good. The decision-making was poor. We had three of four really good opportunities, especially while they were throwing everything at us.
“When it went to 1-1, we’ve had three clean through and Odoh didn’t see them. We do a lot of work on that and normally we are a really good transitional team, but today, the quality was missing when we really needed it most.
“We were well worth the lead in the first half. It is a great goal by Ricky because he’s had a long time to think about it and he’s pulled off a great finish. It’s not the first time we’ve scored after defending a corner.
“We looked a threat. Even in the last seconds of the half, Kwame’s got it and when you’ve got a player like Ricky on the half way line with 40 yards to run into, just hit it into the space. We should score from those opportunities. We got that wrong too many times.
“We’ve then started the second half by giving the ball away and giving them the impetus. I was disappointed with it and that set the tone. They get more control without really hurting us. We defended set-pieces really well and crosses into the box.
“They are a very, very good team, but we had a couple of moments at 1-0 where we could have got in and killed the game and unfortunately we didn’t. They didn’t create much at all. They had a lot of possession, too much for my liking, but I didn’t really feel too threatened.
“Their goal is a really good strike and as soon as it left his foot, I knew it was in. We should get out and stop the shot though. We had long enough.”
Ferguson was also quizzed about two strong penalty shouts for his side. The first coming when Abraham Odoh went down in the box trying to sprint away from Brad Hills, who was already on a booking, and the second when Emmanuel Fernandez appeared to be pushed from behind when attacking a ball in the box.
Neither were given, but Ferguson said: “I thought the first one was a penalty. The boy had already been booked and he’s cut across Ibby. The guys say the one on Manny is a penalty too. The referee missed quite a bit. You’re going to sometimes get them, sometimes not. They’ve had one shout in the second half so it probably evened itself out.”
Posh will now travel to Barnsley on Easter Monday. The Tykes were beaten 4-3 away at Leyton Orient on Good Friday in a crazy game that saw them lead 3-1 before conceding three times in six second-half minutes.