Pitiful Peterborough United deliver an embarrassing performance to lose to League One's bottom club

Posh delivered a display of such baffling awfulness it was hard to comprehend. They started slowly and got worse as the game went on against a Burton Albion side with one win in 16 League One games this season, who haven’t had a permanent manager for 42 days and who were knocked out of the FA Cup by a National League side a few days ago.

This was no fluke 1-0 win. There were no goalkeeping heroics, no brave defensive moments and no near misses. The visitors probably couldn’t believe how easily they coped with a supposedly fearsome attacking unit. Burton didn’t create much themselves, but they had a plan that nullified Joel Randall and turned Ricky-Jade Jones into a passenger so when Kwame Poku limped off on 17 minutes – an incident to compound a terrible night – there was no threat whatsoever despite some determined running from substitute Mailk Mothersille.

Posh won no duels, they picked up no second balls, they struggled to pass the ball accurately even over short distances. The team looked unbalanced from the start. They are now just three points above the drop zone with a a trip to Northampton to follow, one they might well have to undertake without Poku. Even the out of sorts Cobblers will fancy their chances of winning that game.

Of course there remains no chance Posh will keep a clean sheet even when they dominate possession. Burton had three shots on target all game and scored with the second one, taking advantage of the sort of dithering defending that has blighted this season as Mason Bennett fired home on 65 minutes after Abraham Odoh had lost possession for the umpteenth time and one pass had defeated a defence, while goalkeeper Nicholas Bilokapic wandered into no mans land.

Posh made two changes to their starting line-up with George Nevett replacing the suspended Emmanuel Fernandez and Odoh displacing Mothersille on the left side of the attack. Sam Curtis kept his place at left-back ahead of Jack Sparkes. Chris Conn-Clarke was absent from the squad having played for the under 21s earlier in the day.

Burton, a team who broke an English football record by signing 23 new players in a single transfer window, juggled their squad about a bit after a humbling FA Cup defeat to non-league Tamworth last time out.

But the basement team can’t have had an easier first-half all season. Posh spent the first 15 minutes passing the ball slowly without purpose. Randall had no space and Jones saw no ball. Burton clogged up the midfield and Posh had no answers until Katongo sent a ball over the top for Poku to chase. He beat goalkeeper Max Crocombe to the ball, but his attempt to go past him failed because of the use of a hand according to TV replays. To make matters worse Poku immediately limped off – the football Gods have failed to shine on Posh this season.

Posh were then in disarray for 10 minutes as Burton found joy by launching the ball forward. Bennett fluffed one half-chance and Blokapic had to make a flying save from Tomas Kalinauskas. Darren Ferguson was so fed up he changed shape to three at the back. It worked as far as possession was concerned, but chances didn’t come and the half-time whistle from erratic referee Darren Drysdale was a welcome relief.

Remarkably Posh performed even worse after the break. Ryan Sweeney headed wide from a corner five minutes before Bennett scored and the response was pitiful even after Kyprianou was sent on as part of a triple substitution. Mothersille’s tame shot was easily held by Crocombe in the 83rd minute, but drew huge cheers from the crowd as it was a rare shot on goal.

Posh won a flurry of late corners, but had no physical presence and three minutes of added time were spent by a Posh corner flag. It was a lame end to to a dreadful display. The boos rang out from home fans at the end and who could blame them?

Posh: Nicholas Bilokapic, Sam Curtis (sub Jack Sparkes, 54 mins), George Nevett, Oscar Wallin, Jadel Katongo(sub James Dornelly, 66 mins), Ryan De Havilland (sub Hector Kyprianou, 66 mins), Archie Collins, Abraham Odoh (sub Cian Hayes, 66 mins), Joel Randall, Kwame Poku (sub Malik Mothersille, 24 mins), Ricky-Jade Jones.

Unused subs: Will Blackmore, Donay O’Brien-Brady.

Burton: Max Crocombe, Udoka Godwin-Malife, Elliot Watt, Ryan Sweeney, Terence Vancooten, Rumarn Burrell, Jason Sraha, Ciaran Gilligan, Kegs Chauke, Mason Bennett (sub Ben Whitfield, 74 mins), Tomas Kalinauskas (sub Dylan Williams, 85 mins).

Unused subs: Harry Isted, Danilo Orsi, Billy Bodin, Alex Bannon, Juilan Larsson.

GOAL: Burton – Bennett (65 mins).

CAUTIONS: None.

REFEREE: Darren Drysdale 5

Attendance: 6,043 (87 Burton).