REACTION: No excuses from Darren Ferguson as unbeaten Peterborough United run came to an end at Shrewsbury

It was a first defeat in eight League One matches for Posh who have dropped a place to fourth.

Ferguson made three changes to his starting line-up with Niall Mason, Ethan Hamilton and Joe Ward replacing Frankie Kent, Reece Brown and Idris Kanu. Kent was absent because of concussion protocols.

Posh also lost key midfielder Jack Taylor in the frirst-half with a calf injury that will be asssessed tomorrow.

But Ferguson accepted the result was fair.

“We got what we deserved,” Ferguson stated. “We just didn’t do the things we have been doing well lately or the things we wanted to do.

“There can be no excuses on the day. We were well off it and we have seen already this season that when our standards drop we lose and they dropped considerably today.

“That’s seven League One games we’ve lost and we’ve deserved to lose five of them. Only at Sunderland and Wimbledon did we not deserve to to lose.

“We just didn’t look after the ball today. In the first-half we were too slow and ponderous.

“We actually started the game off fine and Siriki Dembele had a big chance, albeit a very difficult one, but then it became a stalemate as they didn’t really hurt us either. For our part we just didn’t get enough crosses in during the first-half or have enough attempts on goal. We didn’t keep the ball well enough to get our wingbacks in one-on-one situations.

“I warned the players if that didn’t improve we would lose and that’s exactly what happened.

“We lost possession in midfield and then again on the edge of our penalty area to gift them the first goal.

“We had spoken about changing formation and we did. For a brief time we did look a bit livelier after we made all our substitutions, but the result was fair.

“That’s two away games in a row where we’re barely threatened to score. We beat Ipswich last weekend without actually having a shot on target.

“We looked weary today and in hindsight maybe I should have made more team changes than three, but all our data and stats told us the players were fine physically.”

Ferguson is expected to make multiple changes for Tuesday’s Papa John’s Trophy quarter-final at Tranmere Rovers (February 6, 7pm).