Oxford win will boost Peterborough’s belief – Ferguson
Posted Sunday, February 17, 2019 by PA
Darren Ferguson did not enjoy Peterborough’s performance at Oxford but said the three points were vital in restoring some belief.
Posh’s 1-0 victory at the Kassam Stadium, which sent Oxford back into the bottom four, was their first win under new boss Ferguson, who is in his third spell as manager at London Road.
The match looked to be heading for a stalemate until Ivan Toney was left unmarked at a free-kick in the 76th minute to score his 19th goal of the season.
Ferguson said: “It was quick-thinking from Marcus (Maddison) and a superb finish from Ivan.
“It’s a big win for us, just getting the momentum back.
“We didn’t have enough of the quality we and the players expect from ourselves.
“But the most important thing was to get that win.
“There were elements of the game I was pleased about – like the clean sheet – but overall it wasn’t good.
“There’s still a lot for us to play for this season and I think that performance in the second half showed that.
“In the last two games we’ve had a player sent off in the first half each time, so I stressed to them how important it was to make sure we kept 11 players on the pitch.
“I had also said in the week that I wanted a scrappy win, if that’s what it would take, and that’s what we got.”
Oxford created very little on a poor surface, although goalkeeper Conor O’Malley did save a long-distance effort from Cameron Brannagan.
U’s boss Karl Robinson had some strong words for his players in the dressing room.
“I was furious at half-time,” Robinson said. “We were ambling at times. There needs to be an intensity in our play otherwise we’re not going to get anywhere.
“Everything we had worked on in training we went against at times.
“The players here have an arrogance that they think their talent will get them out of it.
“They will be in on Sunday – to see the facts behind that performance.
“That’s not a punishment, because they were due to be in anyway with a big week ahead of us. But we’ll go through the rights and the wrongs.”
Robinson was furious that one of his players completely lost concentration to leave Toney on his own for the goal.
“When you have bad communication and when people switch off then it doesn’t matter how you prepare,” Robinson added.
“I thought we were the better team and were dominant, apart from the first five minutes, but we didn’t have a cutting edge.
“We had three blatant penalties. But you can’t blame the referee when your own house is not in order.”
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