Peterborough United chairman on turning a disastrous display into a positive

Posh went down 5-1 in a League One fixture at Sincil Bank last weekend, but bounced back on Tuesday to claim a crucial 1-0 win at home to Wigan Athletic. That was a first win in 46 days and nine League One matches for Posh and kept them six points clear of the relegation zone ahead of a trip to the team directly below them in the table, Bristol Rovers, on Sunday.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson described the performance at Lincoln as ‘a shambles’ and claimed he was managing the ‘softest’ set of players of his career.

MacAnthony approved of his manager’s words and he was delighted with how the players responded.

“No team has any divine right to win any game,” MacAnthony said on his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast. “But the way we played and the result at Lincoln might have done us a favour as it made everyone realise what a dangerous position we are in. What happened was unacceptable and I loved my manager’s response to it after the game. He called the players out publicly and he was right.

“There were some strong words said in the dressing room as well. Sam Hughes said his piece while also admitting he didn’t have the best game himself. I loved the fact the manager then made him captain for the next game.

"There was talk about the manager losing the dressing room, but that never happened. Just look at what the players did for the gaffer in the following game. They didn’t play fluent football, but they dug in, dominated the first-half and came on strong towards the end. We came under a bit of pressure at the start of the second-half, but Wigan didn’t really lay a glove on us.

"Football can be about confidence. There’s no way this squad should have gone so many days without winning. They’ve laid building blocks at home and now we have to overcome the bogey of not winning for so long away from home. Let’s see if we can now go to Bristol, keep a clean sheet and win the game.

"I had two long conversations with the manager between the Lincoln and Wigan games. I’ve told him to concentrate on being a leader and to leave everything else to me. He likes to consult with his staff when he just needs to lead. There’s no way the best manager in League One, with the staff he has, can accept conceding goals from set pieces like we did at Lincoln.

"I knew all about Lincoln’s set-pieces on how they overload the back post with big players and yet I saw Malik Mothersille stationed there trying to mark two big men. I love my coaches so I’m not trying to dig them out, but we all needed to be better and we were against Wigan.”