Peterborough United's wasteful finishing means questions about the forwards won't go away, problems seeing out games, bogey side Burton Albion but Dan Butler and Joe Ward look the part

It was unfortunate that in the week that Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony labelled the club’s forward line as scary, they lived up to that title. Yet, the only people left terrified were Posh fans watching on and trying to work out just how Burton were allowed to take a point back to Derbyshire.

Ricky-Jade Jones, Jonson Clarke-Harris and perhaps Ben Thompson most of all were guilty of missing glorious opportunities that would have killed off the game.

As is often the way in football, Posh were made to pay for that profligacy by a Burton side who played better than their 23rd place in the table suggests.

That means questions about the club’s forward line will not go away. When Posh were promoted two years ago, they scored a league-high 83 goals. Jonson Clarke-Harris scored 31 times, Sammie Szmodics 15 and Siriki Dembele 13.

It would be unreasonable to ask youngsters Jones and Kwame Poku to step and immediately fill the shoes of such talented players but the point remains, those 28 goals must be replaced and the responsibility appears to have fallen to a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old who have scored 8 career league goals between them in 140 appearances.

With nine already, Clarke-Harris is a banker for goals at this level but he can’t score 60 in a season.

The change to the 4-3-3 has been a success and Jones in particular has produced some of his best Posh performances in recent weeks but his chance against Burton, where he put far too much power into a one-on-one effort, is hard to ignore- especially in such a tight game.

Are he and Poku talented players yes? Are they ready to score the weight of goals required to fire Posh to promotion? The jury remains out.

Unfortunately, Posh don't find themselves as well stocked as McCann’s Hull side that beat Posh to the title two years ago, who had Malik Wilks (22 goals) and Keane-Lewis Potter (15 goals) in wide areas. They also lack a creative talent like George Honeyman but that's a different issue.

Perhaps Posh will have to find a way to get Jack Marriott- a former League One Golden Boot winner, who surely wouldn’t have dreamt he was signing up to be a bench warmer a level down from the Championship- back into the side.

Other talking points

1) For all of the talk about poor finishing, Posh found themselves in a situation where they were not playing exceptionally well but were leading 1-0 against a struggling side who offered nothing for the first half an hour of the second half.

Burton should not have been allowed back into the game in much the same way that MK should never have been allowed an opportunity to sniff an improbable point last week. McCann hit the nail on the head when he said his side lacked a killer instinct upfront but maybe this should be extended to the whole team.

Posh have shown a worrying fragility when seeing out games against lowly opponents in the last two. With experienced players such as Frankie Kent, Josh Knight, Jeando Fuchs, Jack Taylor etc, there should be no excuse and a side wanting to earn promotion needs to be winning those kinds of games.

2) It’s clear that moving Joe Ward to right back is part of a ploy to get him and Poku on the pitch at the same time. While Ward is doing an admirable job in his defensive role it does seem to be a waste of his attacking ability. Poku had a quiet day and struggled to make an impact, yet in the second half, when Ward pushed on, he got into promising positions, put in a couple of impressive crosses and brushed the side-netting with a shot; doing more than Poku in the whole game in just a few moments.

He got 13 assists when Posh went up last time but is arguably now being underused.

3) Dan Butler is looking in fantastic shape. It can be tough coming back in after such a long lay-off but Butler, who made his first back-to-back starts yesterday, looks right back up to speed already. He was Posh’s biggest threat for putting balls into the box and adds an air of stability on that left-hand side.

McCann praised the way he looks after himself and trains in the week and his praise seems well-placed.

4) In their 12th match of the season, Posh became the final League One side to register a draw. While many Posh fans would have hoped the side could have found a way to take a point against the likes of Portsmouth, Derby or Bolton, either winning or losing is far more profitable than drawing.

Posh have lost five times already, more than they would like, but are still only outside the playoffs by a point. They have lost twice more than Charlton but The Addicks sit in 18th, having drawn seven times in 12 games.

5) Burton are developing into a bit of a bogey side for Posh. Despite being favourites for all the encounters, Posh have now not beaten the Brewers in any of their last five attempts (four League One, one EFL Trophy). Four have been draws. The last time Posh beat the Brewers was in 2019 when Ward scored a thunderbolt to prevent what looked a certain 0-0.