Peterborough United's players told they need to show more than just potential as profligacy frustrates Darren Ferguson despite win at Leyton Orient

Posh played well for large parts of Monday’s 2-1 victory away at play-off chasing Orient and raced into a two-goal lead thanks to Hector Kyprianou’s tap in and Ephron Mason-Clark’s close-range diving header in the first half.

Orient were allowed to pull one back through Ethan Galbraith after 66 minutes and piled on the pressure in the closing stages with Posh also wasting a host of openings to kill the game off before and after the hosts’ goal.

The win did end a two-game losing run and kept Posh just in the automatic promotion conversation. Bolton and Barnsley were victorious over Reading and Burton respectively and with Derby travelling to Portsmouth on Tuesday, Posh closed to within seven points of second with a game in hand.

But despite the victory, the Posh boss was far from happy with some of his side’s forward play.

He said: “I’m not overly pleased. The result is very pleasing, but the performance at the top end of the pitch was nowhere near good enough. I keep saying the same thing and I’m getting really frustrated with it.

“We need to have far better quality in that final third. How we’re hanging on in a game like this is incredible. We know the reasons why we are and I’ve said it far too many times. The game should be done and dusted comfortably. We should be relaxing at the end of the game, but instead we’re hanging on. Missed chances, missed passes, final pass, final decision, not good enough.

“They were good in the opening ten minutes, they were aggressive and our first goal came from one of our first attacks and it calmed everyone down. Once we got control of the game, we looked good and got the second goal.

“At that point, it became a counter-attack game and I’m thinking just go and get the third goal and the game is over but instead, we just made the wrong decisions.

“At 2-0 we were comfortable, popping it about and causing them all sorts of problems and then we got to the last third and don’t finish them off and again, we don’t keep a clean sheet.

“There’s so much more improvement in there, but when am I going to see it? Am I going to get it this season or am I going to have to wait? We need it this season.

“It’s a really good win for us, but I’m asking for my players to take a bit more responsibility in terms of the level of quality that we feel we’ve got in the team.

“The bottom line is, it’s their careers, I’m not going to be here forever, and they’ve got to find a way of trying to get to the top of the ladder in their careers. At the moment, all they’re showing is potential. They have to show better quality.

“We dealt with it going 2-1 ok, but again we had an opportunity pretty much straight away with Ricky and that would have killed the game because they’ve just scored and got the fans up. Jed has made one save as they’re throwing men into the box, but we have to control the game and finish teams off far better than what we’re doing.

“The fans were brilliant, they sold out really quick. It’s really good for them to get another win on the road, our away form is better on the road than it is at home.”

Posh’s next match is in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy final at Wembley against Wycombe, who drew 0-0 away at Blackpool on Monday.