Peterborough United manager bemoans errors at both ends of the pitch after heavy home defeat

Of course Ferguson was frustrated by events on what turned out to be a dreadful day, a joint record worst home defeat in the club’s Football League history, one to match games against Northampton Town in 1985 and Rotherham United in 1999.

The chances Posh missed during a first-half when they played pretty well offensively hurt the boss as did some of his team's defending. Referee Lee Swabey, who cautioned Ferguson, also didn’t please the manager, although there were no excuses coming from his direction.

"Football can be a game of ifs and buts,” Ferguson stated. “But the reality is we lost five goals, three of them scored from inside the six yard box and two penalties. You can’t be giving good and confident sides like Bolton that much help and expect to win matches.

"But there will be no finger pointing from me. We win together and we lose together and today we lost. My job now is to pick these players up, give them their confidence back and get ready for a tough week of travelling.

"We know we can’t make the mistakes we did in this game and expect to get to where we want to go. But football is like that sometimes so congratulatons to Bolton on one hell of a result.

"It’s one game though. It’s just one defeat. We actually started the game strongly before we conceded a soft goal from a free kick.

"There were then two huge moments. Ephron (Mason-Clark) had a chance to equalise immediately and Jonson (Clarke-Harris) has missed an absolute sitter for a player of his quality. Two minutes later we were 2-0 down.

“There was no panic at half-time though, I felt we had controlled large parts of the first-half. I didn’t see too much wrong. They weren’t cutting through us, which is why I didn’t change anything.

"My biggest message was to make sure we scored the next goal, but instead within five minutes they scored twice and the game was over.

"Even if it was 2-0 after 70 minutes or 80 minutes, we would still be in the game. I know what this place is like. The fans can make it difficult for opponents, but instead they and we were quickly deflated.”

Ferguson was irritated by his caution at the hands of a referee who was erratic in his decision-making throughout, although he stopped well short of saying the result was influenced by Swabey.

"Look we lost 5-0,” Ferguson added. “I’m not going to criticise a referee. There is no point. I was disappointed with my caution though. I said nothing and did very little other than put a foot on the pitch when we were 4-0 down. Even their manager said it was a nonsense, but the fourth official decided to get involved.”

Wins for Wycombe Wanderers and Shrewsbury Town coupled with this result dropped Posh to ninth in League One. They are six points adrift of Barnsley, 2-0 winers over Cambridge United, who occupy the final play-off place.

Posh are at Fleetwood Town on Tuesday (February 14) ahead of a trip to Morecambe next Saturday (February 18).