Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson celebrates victory in ‘must-win’ game

Posted Sunday, January 26, 2020 by PA

Darren Ferguson believes momentum is with his Peterborough side after a 2-1 home win over former League One leaders Rotherham moved them into the play-offs.

Ivan Toney and Bristol City loanee Sammie Szmodics made it back-to-back wins for Posh, despite Michael Ihiekwe pulling a goal back for the visitors who have been replaced in top spot by Ipswich.

Posh had gone six matches without a win before this week, and Ferguson said: “I’m delighted with the result. We knew this week we had huge games coming up at home against Wycombe and Rotherham who were the top two and we beat them, deservedly so on both occasions.

“They started the game well but both our goals were excellent.

“You know what you’re going to get from Rotherham, they throw it in the box. They didn’t have many chances but we switched off from a set-piece which was very disappointing.

“But we stood up to them and we created the better chances. They put the ball in the box and make you defend. I thought we coped with that.

“We can build momentum from this. No question Rotherham will be up there at the end of the season. I felt it was a must-win game. If they beat us they were 10 points ahead, but that’s now gone down to four.”

Peterborough had to see out a lengthy period of stoppage time after an injury to one of the linesmen led to a member of the crowd taking over fourth official duties following an appeal over the tannoy.

Defeat ended Rotherham’s run of five straight wins, and manager Paul Warne said: “The first 20 minutes we didn’t press with enough intensity. I was quite happy to get in at half-time 2-1 down. I expected the team to perform to a higher level second half, but it just wasn’t a good game in fairness.

“We get criticised all the time for the way, supposedly, we play. But I don’t think Peterborough were football geniuses. They just kept turning us all the time and we found it hard to deal with their pace upfront.

“They kept us pegged back quite a lot and I just thought that we played too straight-lined. We didn’t have any guile today.

“We had too many off par today, which is disappointing because we’ve been on a really good run. We just didn’t seem at our glorious best today.

“If you’d been in my dressing room now, it’s like the season’s over and they haven’t got promoted – so they’re down.”