Peterborough United will be 'left behind' in League One promotion race if Lincoln performance is repeated, warns boss Darren Ferguson

Posh struggled to create chances against a stubborn Imps side who seemed to content to defend in numbers. A snapshot from Ricky-Jade Jones that crashed back off the bar in the closing stages of the first half was the closest Posh came to breaking the deadlock.

It was only the second time Posh had failed to score in a League One match this season and saw Posh drop to third behind Bolton, who were 4-1 victors at Carlisle. Victories for Portsmouth and Derby over Port Vale and Cheltenham respectively, with goals in the final ten minutes, further added to the disappointment of the result.

Posh and Derby are now level on points but Ferguson’s men have a better goal difference and a game in hand.

But Ferguson was left disappointed with his side’s performance, however, labelling the first half in particular as ‘as bad as we’ve played for a long time.’

He said: “It’s very frustrating. It was a very disappointing performance. The first half was as bad as we’ve played for a long time.

"I don’t know why, the game developed as we felt it would. They just sat in to play on the counter attack. but we had no zip about us, no tempo. We were too slow and took many touches with people trying things in the middle of the pitch they didn’t need to do. I was really, really disappointed.

"Our away form has really improved in the last five matches, out of 15 we’ve taken 13 points, which is very good, but we can’t have any let up. I told the players that and it looked like it fell on deaf ears.

“We’ve got to go up a gear now as whoever goes up a gear now is going to have a right chance. We can’t be left behind, but we will be left behind with performances like that. It just wasn’t good enough.

“I couldn’t wait for half time. I thought about making changes then, but I wanted to see how the second half started. We started a little bit better, but we just lacked real quality and tempo in our performance.

“The first time we did what we worked on, players running behind their defenders, we got a cross in and hit the bar but we didn’t do it enough. We were off it today. That was as poor as we’ve been for a long time.

“That was still without being tested at the back as they didn’t really give us a threat. This is where we’re at now. They’ve celebrated like they’ve won the cup final.

“I’ve let the players know that wasn’t good enough. I’ve let the players know I wasn’t happy at half time because it was a really soft performance.”

Ferguson called for reinforcements from the bench after 65 minutes, replacing Joel Randall and David Ajiboye with Ryan De Havilland and Jonson Clarke-Harris after suggesting after the Shrewsbury victory that the latter could face a fight for his place in the squad.

Ferguson added: “I felt the only space was outside of them and we had to get more balls into the box and do something different. I always felt that with the way they would play - so deep - that Jonno would be a good sub for us.

“The case with him is simple if he’s going to be here. He’s not going anywhere so we have to use him accordingly. He’s behind Ricky at the moment with the way we play and Malik, but at times, if teams are looking at us and deciding to drop deep, we have to have a different option and he gives us that.

“He won some headers, but we went too long too quickly when he was on at the end.”

Posh have their EFL Trophy quarter final tie at home to Wimbledon on Tuesday (January 30) before hosting Wigan in League One next Saturday (February 3).