The end is nigh for Peterborough United as the manager travels through his ‘A to Z’ book of insults

Bradford City, AFC Wimbledon and now Walsall (April 27) have all beaten Posh when sitting in the bottom two of the table since Darren Ferguson returned as manager. Current bottom four occupants Plymouth and Scunthorpe both won at the ABAX Stadium without conceding a goal, the latter during the tenure of Steve Evans.

And yet this surrender in the West Midlands - Walsall could easily have won by a bigger margin than 3-0 - was comfortably the worst of the lot. This was the time to fight, to leave nothing on the pitch, to rise to the occasion in front of over 1500 travelling fans to become frontrunners in the fight for sixth place.

But no. The players who found it easy to compete with Sunderland and to rally when falling behind two minutes from time in front of a packed ABAX Stadium five days previously, could barely raise a jog never mind a gallop and rarely won a tackle or a contest for a second ball against a team who still need a minor miracle to get out of trouble next weekend.

No wonder Ferguson travelled through his ‘A to Z’ book of insults after the game. The boss was at first confused by what he had witnessed, but quickly became angry. “I don’t know where to start,” were his first words at the post-match press conference. The rest was a flurry of negative adjectives including ‘awful’, ‘horrendous’ and ‘woeful’ - and they were the kindest words for a set of players who picked the wrong game to go missing.

“Players can drive a manager mad,” Ferguson added after a five-game unbeaten run was turned into a run of three games without a win. They can also make fans furious and a few boos could be heard at the final whistle as it became definite results elsewhere had meant a Posh win here would have left a sixth place finish in their own hands.

Those players who had started to suggest they had a future under Ferguson next season have now presumably cast doubts in the manager’s mind. If promotion is the aim next season Ferguson will want players who can perform under pressure rather than players who can be ruffled by a strong wind, committed opponents and a pitch more suited to rugby union than football.

When Posh have had success under this manager in the past they’ve been blessed with tough characters (think Grant McCann, Micah Hyde, Aaron Mclean), do-or-die battlers (there’s a reason why a modest footballer like Charlie Lee is still feted by the Posh faithful), powerful defensive partnerships (think Gaby Zakuani and Ryan Bennett) and speed merchants who could also finish up top (think Craig Mackail-Smith, Britt Assombalonga, Dwight Gayle) to complement the flair players like George Boyd.

Does Ferguson have that in his current squad? Hardly. Captain Alex Woodyard set a fine example with his pressing and workrate in the first-half yesterday, while Marcus Maddison certainly has flair, but the rest need to show some mettle in the final two matches to have any chance of working with a triple-promotion-winning Posh boss next season.

Of course Posh can still overhaul McCann’s Doncaster side. Teams have been successful after needing snookers before, but those teams probably didn’t concede three terrible goals to limited opponents. Andy Cook’s unchallenged close-range header on the stroke of half-time set the ball rolling for a pumped-up home side and Daniel Lafferty’s own goal and a simple finish for livewire forward Josh Gordon after the break completed a deservedly emphatic scoreline.

For Posh, Maddison’s long-range strike in the sixth minute was the last time they tested fiesty home goalkeeper Chris Dunn.

No wonder chairman Darragh MacAnthony conceded Posh were facing a seventh straight season in the third tier straight after the game, while congratulating Walsall’s players for turning up and fighting. A most obvious case of implied criticism.

The chairman is right of course. After losing so badly to a team who had collected one point in their previous eight League One games, Posh now need to beat, away from home, a team who have won seven of their last eight unbeaten matches and who can still go up to the Championship autoamtically, just to retain an outside interest in the play-offs.

Good luck with that.

Posh: Aaron Chapman, Jason Naismith, Daniel Lafferty (sub Lee Tomlin, 65 mins), Josh Knight, Rhys Bennett, Alex Woodyard, Louis Reed, Siriki Dembele (sub Joe Ward, 58 mins), George Cooper (sub Ivan Toney, 24 mins), Marcus Maddison, Matt Godden.

Unused substitites: Conor O’Malley, Callum Cooke, Mathew Stevens, Ben White.

Walsall: Chris Dunn, Joe Edwards (sub Isiaih Osbourne, 82 mins), Luke Leahy, George Dobson, Nicky Devlin, Liam Kinsella, Connor Johnson, Dan Scarr (sub jon Guthrie, 63 mins), Scott Laird, Josh Gordon, Andy Cook (sub Aramide Oteh, 90 + 3 mins).

Unused substitutes: Liam Roberts, Zeli Ismail, Jack Fitzwater, Cameron Norman.

Goals:

Walsall - Cook (45 + 2 mins), Lafferty (58 mins, og), Gordon (74 mins).

Cautions: Posh - Woodyard (foul).

Walsall - Dobson (foul).

Referee: Martin Coy 7

Attendance: 5,400 (1,585 Posh).