The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
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Even after a period of reflection, Posh boss Darren Ferguson’s review of his side’s Championship defeat at Preston was damning.
“Simply not good enough,” Ferguson said four days later. “We were nowhere near where we need to be in terms of performance.”
Posh went down 1-0 to an early free header from a setpiece against a team who started the game without a point to their name.
In contrast Posh travelled to Deepdale on the back of two strong home performances, a 2-1 win over Derby and a 2-2 draw with Cardiff who equalised in the final seconds of a hard-fought contest.
“It was very frustrating,” Ferguson, a former Preston manager, said. “We felt it was a game we could win after two very good and encouraging displays at home.
“But we started badly and although we improved in the second half we didn’t do enough. I suppose if you reversed the halves we might have won the game, but that’s clutching at straws.
“It just proved again that once you drop your standards in the Championship you will get beaten.
“I wish the players believed in themselves as much I believe in them, but for the first 45 minutes we showed no self belief and very little conviction.
“We didn’t have a shot on goalwhichwasmostunlikeus.
“We were much improved in the second-half and Siriki (Dembele) should have scored. It was a great run, but he just lost his footing as he prepared to shoot.
“If that goes in we would have had a great chance to go on and win as the crowd can turn on their team quite quickly here.
“It was disappointing to have to take Siriki off. He cramped up, but we kept causing them problems even though we also left ourselves open to the counter attack.
“I was pleased with how sharp Jack Marriott and Sammie Szmodics looked when they came on, but I have to be frank and we have an issue with set-pieces which is a worry as they are so important in the Championship.
“We have brought in Andy Butler to help and it’s not his fault what’s going on. We just aren’t aggressive enough. They’ve scored with a free header from four yards out and they had four free headers from corners in the second half.
“We can’t switch off for a minute in this competition and we have to start taking our home performances into the away games.”
Posh have dropped to 17th place in the Championship table.
Darren Ferguson was frustrated by the Posh defeat at Preston.
Jack Marriott looked sharp when he came on at Preston.