Peterborough United manager hails an outstanding display from his players, but it wasn’t all good news as Oxford United were routed

Two goals from the division’s top scorer Ivan Toney and strikes from Siriki Dembele and Josh Knight secured a fifth straight win for Posh who stay third in the League One table.

It wasn’t all great news for Posh as key defender Nathan Thompson picked up a red card and centre-back Frankie Kent suffered a serious-looking knee injury. Posh scored twice after Thompson’s departure.

Toney also collected a ninth yellow card of the League One campaign and is now one yellow card away from a two-game suspension.

Ferguson, who was also cautioned by referee Alan Haines, an official the Posh boss described as ‘inconsistent’ after back-tracking quickly from a claim there might be personal issues between the pair.

“Nothing should be allowed to detract from an outstanding display by the players,” Ferguson said. “There was stuff going on I didn’t like, but the bottom line is we played with a great desire, with great energy and we scored great goals again.

“We started a little sloppily as we couldn’t get our first pass away, but once we hit the front we were totally dominant. “We should have scored more before half-time and when we went 2-0 up in the second-half I felt we were going to win comfortably.

“But then the referee decided to even the game up a bit by sending Nathan off. The referee was inconsistent all game and I’ll leave it at that, but he left with us over half an hour to play with 10 men against a very dangerous opponent with that one decision.

“But the lads responded well. The substitutes we sent on, Niall Mason, Josh Knight and Rhys Bennett, were outstanding. “Indeed the positioning of our centre-backs was so good they got to every cross first and to then score twice with 10 men showed what we were all about.

“The fourth goal summed us up. In the 95th minute we were running all over them. We exploited the space and we look so fit and strong.

“It was a very special display and kept the running going nicely. To beat four promotion rivals within a five-game winning streak and to score four goals against three of them is a fantastic effort.”

Kent will be sent for a scan on Monday, but the club are not hopeful of good news. Kent. who left the game wearing a knee brace, will certainly miss Tuesday’s (February 11) home game with Southend, but a longer lay-off is expected.

“Frankie planted his foot and his knee went which is never good,” Ferguson added. “We will send him for a scan, but it looks like a bad one.”