Peterborough United 'not ready' for games against teams such as Portsmouth and Derby County admits Darren Ferguson following defeat

Posh have now lost three consecutive League One games in a run that has seen them face both of those sides, as well as rivals Northampton Town.

Their latest defeat come on Saturday when once again Posh couldn’t hold a 1-0 lead- given to them by Ricky-Jade Jones- conceding twice in five minutes at the end of the first half to close-range efforts from Colby Bishop and Abu Kamara before Regan Poole added a third after an hour.

A late Joe Morrell red card finally gave Posh some impetus in the second half but they largely failed to trouble their opponents after the break.

Posh have slid down to 13th in the table having taken nine points from their first six games.

Ferguson described all three goals as “poor”, with Kamara’s effort coming after a miskick Romoney Crichlow while attempting to clear corner left him with an easy finish.

He said: "We lost poor goals and we need to stop that. Romoney I wouldn’t include in that. That’s just a bad mistake, it’s a real error of concentration. He’s a human being, I’d be more worried about the first and third goals.

"It’s not overly surprising we’ve seen this inconsistency but perhaps this game and Derby, maybe we’re not ready for that sort of game at the moment. There’s similar reasons why we lost today to the previous two.

“Both Derby and today were similar, we go 1-0 up and you’re thinking, come on then, and then we don’t kill teams off. We were nowhere near as dominant today as we were against Derby though.

"We have to believe in what we’re doing. The break probably has come at the right time for us, the guys will have a break now. We’ll relax and go again. There’s things we need to improve on but there’s no panic.”

As had been the case since the summer squad overhaul, Ferguson fielded a very young starting line-up with an average age of just 22.2 years. Peter Kioso was the oldest player to start the match at just 25.

Ferguson added: “It’s a disappointing result, we don’t like losing games and now it’s three on the bounce.

“We started the game really well, we were a threat going forward. Ricky scored a really good goal and then he has a great chance to make it two.

“At the moment, unfortunately, we haven’t got that ruthless touch to kill teams off, that Derby and Portsmouth had.

“One of my big motivations for not leaving was to build a new team and everyone can see what we’re trying to do.

“The average age today was just over 22 and when you get that you can get inconsistencies and that’s what we are getting. That falls on me, not the players, they just have to find a way to be more ruthless and maybe that will come in time.

“I’m not being critical of the team given it was such a tough start to the season.”

Posh do not have any serious concerns over Jones who came off after 65 minutes after rolling his ankle for the second time in the match.

Posh now have a long break until their next fixture on September 12 when they begin their EFL Cup campaign at home to Cambridge. The match at home to Cheltenham originally scheduled for Saturday has been rearranged to August 19 due to international call-ups.