Posh are ‘being ruthless at the right time of the season’ admits Fergie

Peterborough closed the gap on Pompey with their fifth league win on the spin against Stevenage on Wednesday.

But it was success at a cost for Darren Ferguson’s side, as influential midfielder Hector Kyprianou picked up his 10th yellow card of the season in the 3-1 success - ruling him out of tomorrow’s promotion showdown.

Peterborough were made to work for the victory over Steve Evans’ play-off chasers, with the visitors working first-half opportunities before Harrison Burrows fired in a penalty two minutes before the break.

Jamie Reid had a header saved by Jed Steer after the restart, before goals from Jadel Katongo and Kwame Poku put firmly in the ascendancy.

Nick Freeman reduced the arrears with five minutes left.

Peterborough are now nine points behind Pompey with a game in hand, with Ferguson believing his side are coming to the boil at just the right time.

He said: ‘We’re finding ways of winning games and we’ve managed to do that again with another three goals. We’ve overcome a tough opponent but we were nowhere near our quality.

‘I can’t expect perfect all of the time though, what I need is that we find a way to win when we’re not good and tonight we were ruthless.

‘It’s a reverse to what we’re used to and we’re being ruthless at the right time of the season.

‘I’ve been delighted with how the players have reacted. I said to them a while ago, get to March in touch and then that’s the pivotal month.

‘That was the one we had to really go for it, we’ve now got two games left in it, both at home.

‘Saturday takes care of itself and Cheltenham will probably be off but we need to come back from the break with the momentum to really go for it. There’s no doubt we’ve got a chance.’

Ferguson, currently in his fourth spell as manager, has led Posh into the Championship three times – in 2009, 2011 and 2021.