Peterborough United had great expectations even though it's a 'great' League One this season

Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony (left) with director of football Barry Fry earlier this season. Photo: David Lowndes.

But he still believes his side should have been challenging for automatic promotion with some of the division’s big hitters.

Instead Posh are long shots just make the League One play-offs even though MacAnthony is delighted with the impact returning boss Darren Ferguson has made.

Posh have picked up 16 points in eight matches under Ferguson after following a 5-2 win over Plymouth last Saturday with a frustrating 0-0 draw against Charlton on Tuesday.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com

But Posh are eighth, still eight points off a top six spot.

"It’s the toughest League One I can remember,” MacAnthony said on the latest edition of his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast.

“We’ve had big clubs and great sides against us before at this level, but there are a lot of them about this season. There are eight top sides and I’m not necessarily including us in that.

"But my expectation was we had built a squad capable of challenging at the top end I still believe that.

"We showed what we can do against Plymouth, but we are suffering for our poor form in the first half of the season.

"We have left ourselves an awful lot to do and whether or not we have time to make up the ground remains to be seen.

"We will need to win 70-80% of our matches just to have a chance as this is a great league and the other teams chasing promotion are not stopping. The way the top two are going they could both reach 100 points.

"But the manager has improved us. He’s sorted the away form out and he’s beaten a top side which were two of his three aims for the season. All that’s left is to prove we can come from behind and win regularly.

“We have an indentity again. We are very forward thinking and players are coming into their best form.

"We had a million quid in wages sitting on the bench last weekend so the strength in depth is there.

"I now hope we play to our strengths and have a go at everyone we play.

"If we go to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday and play for a 1-0 counter-attacking win it would probably rebound on us.

“We want that ‘we’ll score more goals than them’ mindset back.”