MATCH REACTION: McCann's frustration as his players didn't play the Peterborough United way

Posh went down 4-2 after conceding two goals in the final stages to their League Two opponents. Lincoln’s long-ball tactics eventually overcame a dogged Posh performance.

Posh suffered a huge blow before kick off when top scorer Jack Marriott pulled out of the game after suffering a hip problem in the warm-up.

His replacement Danny Lloyd scored a cracking goal, but Posh lost despite leading twice.

“We can only play one way,” McCann said. “We have to pass the ball quickly and accurately. We showed glimpses of it tonight, but we didn’t show it enough.

“We were sucked into the way Lincoln like to play. We can’t launch the ball forward to our strikers. It’s not the way I like to play and it won’t ever be the way I play.

“The last thing we spoke about at the hotel before the game was to stop crosses. That’s what Lincoln do and we conceded two goals from them. We didn’t have the desire to top the ball coming into our penalty area.

“I was also disappointed with the way we reacted to taking the lead. On both occasions we scored and then took our foot off the gas.

“I don’t want to win games 1-0. I don’t want to see us taking our time over goal kicks and free kicks when we are winning. We can’t assume one goal will be enough. I want us to push on and score again and it’s not the first time I have said that this season.

“We’ve been good recently, but we struggled towards the end of this one.

“The players gave us everything though and we will pick them up again before another big game on Saturday. They defended a lot of long balls and that’s a real physical challenge.

“Obviously we missed Jack, but Danny Lloyd played well,”

Posh host Leicester in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday (January 27).