Peterborough United now need to back up a vital win by claiming three points on the road
Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson insists a welcome win must now be backed up with a victory at relegation rivals Bristol Rovers on Sunday (February 2).
Posh picked up three League One points for the first time in 46 days as Mahamadou Susoho’s first senior goal secured a 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic at the Weston Homes Stadium on Tuesday night.
Ferguson’s side moved up a place at the expense of their next opponents, but the gap to the relegation zone remains at six points after Burton Albion and Crawley Town secured late wins.
The Posh boss was delighted with his side’s reaction to his stinging public criticism following Saturday’s 5-1 thrashing at Lincoln City. Ferguson made five changes to that starting line-up including the introduction of Manchester City loanee Susoho who was making just the second start of his EFL career.
“It was the reaction I asked for and expected,” Ferguson said. “It’s been a long time coming, but we deserved the win. It was a good response to letting everyone down at the weekend. I don’t like criticising my players publicly, but it had to be done. I could have made more than five changes, but I was delighted with them tonight. It’s simple really as do we want a happy dressing room like we had tonight or do we want to experience what we went through at Lincoln?
"Considering what happened on Saturday we started with a lot of confidence and belief. We were very aggressive and scored a great goal courtesy of a great cross from Tayo Edun and a brave header from Mo. I was pleased at half-time because we were in control, apart from only scoring one goal. I felt Mo’s freshness would help us and I felt I had to change the wingers and to get a number 10 playing closer to Gustav Lindgren so I went with Chris Conn-Clarke.
"Wigan gained control of the game at the start of the second-half without really troubling us. It was a bit like the Exeter game recently except this time we saw it through. We even kicked on again from 75 minutes onwards and we had the better chances to score. Our subs gave us energy whereas they petered out so I felt comfortable towards the end.
"We’ve actually done well in the last three home games and we’ve deserved more points than we managed to pick up. We’ve kept two clean sheets which should have been three and, Saturday apart, we’ve looked much better defensively. We have signed three tough boys at the back. They are fighters who keep emerging with the ball and I love that. They all understand the game.
"But one win won’t change anything. We have to back this result up by winning away. It’s a big game this weekend, but in our position they are all big games. We are not likely to score four or five goals in a game right now so we have to find other ways to win which we did tonight.”
Posh centre-back Manny Fernandez missed last night’s win because of concussion protocols and with club captain Hector Kyprianou dropped to the substitutes’ bench on-loan central defender Sam Hughes was named skipper on just his fourth appearance.
Ferguson has not yet decided whether or not to make the switch a permanent one. Archie Collins usually skippers the side when Kyprianou is absent.
"In our situation it’s probably best to have a vocal skipper,” Ferguson stated. “And Sam is a very good talker. He will stay as skipper is Hector doesn’t play as I need Archie to concentrate on his own game, but I haven’t decided what to do if Hector plays.”