Peterborough United manager expresses regret after Mansfield rant and there are injury concerns for the weekend

Ferguson accused his players of lacking ‘bottle’ after a superb 70-minute performance was undone by a dreadful end to the game which saw the Stags go through to the last 16 after a penalty shootout.

Ferguson stood by some of his comments, but regretted others, most particularly a reference to the play-off capitulation at Hillsborough last season and to a claim ‘the players were lucky to have him.’

The manager insists he still enjoys a ‘fantastic’ relationship with his players.

"Emotion took over,” Ferguson said. “I can lose my temper and get frustrated when we stop doing the things we should be doing. We should be like clockwork as we do the same things day in and day out, but the drop off during the Mansfield game was big.

“When a team starts pressing as happened at Mansfield we need to move quicker and think quicker. We don’t change the way we play.

"It was a frustrating because we had played so well for 70 minutes, but ‘bottle jobs’ was a bit strong and I was wrong to mention Hillsborough and to say the players were lucky to have me. That was just emotion.

"I must stress I was only referring to this one game at Mansfield. It’s not as though we have been collapsing every week. In fact we are currently playing very well and we should have won at Bolton last week as we were the better side when playing 11 v 11.

"And Mansfield couldn’t get near us for 70 minutes. Everything we worked on went well, but we just didn’t finish them off. There were actually huge positives to take from that game.

"In some ways I’d rather we were a team with bog standard rubbish players because it would be easier to accept a poor performance.

"But I actually believe this squad has the most potential of any I have worked with. It is only potential right now though.

"We had a good meeting with the players this morning. We touched on what I had said as I had put it in the public domain, but they players were very good in the meeting.

"I know the players very well and they know me very well. Our relationship is fantastic.

"I actually think it’s a healthy challenge for the players now. We have to stick to what we believe in and we do have to show them patience because they are so young.”

Posh host Bristol Rovers in a League One game on Saturday and there are ‘two or three’ players doubtful after picking up knocks at Mansfield, while right back and skipper Peter Kioso is suspended.