Peterborough United manager issues an ultimatum to his players after heavy home defeat

Posh midfielder Jack Taylor slips as he shoots against Bolton. Photo: David Lowndes.

"You can either let the result affect you and collapse, or you react positively and get a result in the next game,” Ferguson said after a 5-0 home humbling to Bolton Wanderers. “And there’s only one way it can go.”

Posh players are due at the training ground on Sunday morning, not as a punishment as attendance was always in the diary, and Ferguson won’t be showing them clips from yesterday’s video nasty.

He will instead concentrate on picking the players up ahead of games at Fleetwood Town on Tuesday (February 14) and Morecambe next Saturday (February 18).

"We won’t ignore the result of course,” Ferguson said. “There will be a time and a place to show the players the dvd, but that’s not in the morning.

"We were always coming in on Sunday morning because we have such a long week coming up.

"We will quickly put the result to bed and concentrate on the next game. We will take the Bolton result on the chin and move on. That’s all we can do.

"There are always improvements to make after a win, loss or draw. The mistakes we made have been pointed out and we move on to the next game.

"The bottom line is it was a tough day and we made it too comfortable for a very good Bolton side. You can't give cheap goals away to any team never mind one as flying like Bolton are.

"But I never go over the top after a win and I won’t be getting too down over a defeat, even a heavy one.

"I know after we won three games in a row some were saying we were going to win 10 in a row, but football is much more difficult than that. Now some will be saying we’ve had it after we lost to a good side again.

"I can’t control what’s happened in the past. I do know that since I’ve come back the players have been very good. I am confident of the right response.

"I can’t let the players get emotional about it. While others are doubtless criticising them I will be picking them up.”

Posh have now won one and lost nine of 10 games against the teams currently in the top 10 of League One.