Darren Ferguson lauds home form as Peterborough thump Oxford

Posted Sunday, December 10, 2023 by PA

Boss Darren Ferguson hailed his Peterborough side for turning the Weston Homes Stadium into a fortress after demolishing promotion rivals Oxford 3-0.

Hector Kyprianou and Ricky-Jade Jones struck their fourth league goals of the season during a dominant first-half display.

Substitute Ryan De Havilland put the seal on a stunning success with his first Football League strike for the club in second-half stoppage time.

Ferguson’s men moved to within a point of the automatic promotion places thanks to a result which extended their unbeaten run on their own turf to 13 games in all competitions.

Ferguson said: “I’m very pleased with both the performance and the result. It’s a good victory against another team who have been going well.

“It took a little while to get going but then we started to do things quicker and got a grip of the game as we scored.

“We got the second goal and the game should have really been over by half-time as we had two more massive chances to kill it off.

“I told the lads not to worry about missing chances as they would keep creating more and that’s what happened.

“We were thoroughly deserving winners and I’m delighted with the home form. There are chances being created, there are lots of goals and there are clean sheets.

“We could have scored double figures in each of the last three league games at home quite easily.

“It’s really important we continue this home form and back it up with more wins away.”

Oxford boss Des Buckingham saw his wait for a first league win in the hotseat continue after they were brushed aside.

Billy Bodin had a penalty appeal waved away on the hour but they rarely looked like making a comeback.

Buckingham admitted: “We simply weren’t good enough.

“We can talk about tough conditions with the weather and the pitch and so on but we have to remove the excuses.

“If you give a team like this a two-goal lead, you’re going to find it very difficult to come back into a game.

“We know we’re not quite where we need to be. I’ll take responsibility for that and the players will also.

“What people see on the outside and what people see on the inside are very different. Those that know me know that.

“I’ve been here for two weeks and had five games in that time. At some point I need to put my stamp on things. It’s a fine balance to strike but now is that time.

“We had three good results leading into this game but the league is the priority for us and we need to react on Tuesday night (against Reading).”