Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson urges his senior players to stand up and be counted Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson has urged his more experienced League One performers to step up and take on more responsibility.
Posh went down to a second successive 2-0 defeat on Tuesday night as Championship side Oxford United proved too strong for a young team at the Kassam Stadium. Posh had lost by the same scoreline at home to Huddersfield Town in their League One opener at the weekend.
Two moments of alarming defending presented Oxford with two first-half goals and Posh lacked the confidence or belief to get back into the tie. Recalled goalkeeper Nicholas Bilokapic was caught in possession for the first goal.
But Ferguson is refusing to blame the newcomers to the side. He believes others need to stand up and be counted as Posh seek to overcome a sticky start to a new season with injuries really starting to bite.
“It was a similar story to Saturday,” Ferguson admitted. “We conceded two awful goals. It was an individual error for the first goal when the ball should just have been put into the stand. It was a nonsense goal. And for the second goal we just let players run past us with the ball and without it.
“I don’t us to become known as a pretty team that is also soft. We are not tackling well enough. We need more resilience and we need to stop giving soft goals away with individual errors. We’ve lost two games without scoring and it’s clear we have a lot of work to do, but I’m not blaming the players who have only just got here. Those who have been here for a season or more really need to step up and take some responsibility.
“We had actually started the game pretty well, but we’re currently an ‘almost’ team. We’re lacking sharpness, and maybe there’s a lack of belief. There were positives. Our wingers were very good. Abraham Odoh was very good in the first half and Cian Hayes was our biggest threat in the second-half.”
Ferguson expects captain Hector Kyprianou and left-sided centre-back George Nevett to miss Saturday’s League One game at Shrewsbury Town, but they should be available for the trip to Exeter City on August 24.
About The Author
