‘Quite Honestly Embarrassed’- Peterborough United Reaction to Heavy Lincoln Defeat

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Darren Ferguson was left feeling ’embarrassed’ about his side’s performance and labelled his players ‘soft’ and ‘not one of my sides’ during his post-match interview with the media.

Posh fans online also shared their frustration about the performance and their side’s current situation after the 5-1 defeat to Lincoln City.

After the result on Saturday Ferguson said this in his post-match interview about his side’s current league position and results recently; “We’re in a relegation fight. If we play like that we’re in trouble- It’s my job now, in the next whatever games it is, is to keep us in the league.”

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He also laid the majority of the blame on his players in the interview as well with comments such as;

So far away from one of my teams it’s unbelievable, quite honestly embarrassed”

“It’s not about me- that today was just so far from what I’d expect from a Peterborough United team when I’ve been in charge. It’s just so far away the complete opposite.”

“If I’m going to be really honest, I could really go for them and give my honest opinion. But I’ve got to be I suppose careful to a degree.”

“Some of them to be honest just didn’t look like they fancied it.”

“I think it is on the players, this is the softest group of players I’ve ever had as a manager.”

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Posh fans travelled to the LNER stadium in great numbers as they always do. However, understandably with their current form, the strong support waivered quickly after the first Imps goal hit the back of the net 12 minutes in. Even more so after Bayliss’ spectacular free kick on the 33rd minute which saw Lincoln go in to half time 2-0 up and deservedly so.

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Peterborough’s only dangerous moment throughout the whole first half was from a very similar free kick attempt by De Havilland. Unfortunately for Boro’ this attempt hit the underside of the bar and not the back of the net. Amongst the Lincoln applause, as the referee blew his whistle for half time, was boos from the away crowd. Ferguson felt the same about his side’s performance in that first half as he said; “We didn’t lay a glove on them, Ryan’s (De Havilland) free kick that’s it.”

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The second half didn’t get any better for them as they found themselves three goals down ten minutes in to the second half thanks to a Freddie Draper penalty after Dom Jefferies was brought down in the area by Hayes. The way in which they conceded the penalty and pretty much all the other goals in the game was really poor. It was clear to see why they’ve conceded the most goals in the division by a few. Ferguson reflected on this in his post match interview; “All the goals were awful, even leading up to the second goal- we can’t give free kicks away like that.”

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Peterborough managed to score what turned out to be just a consolation goal through substitute Ricky Jade-Jones. Lindgren picked the ball up on the edge of the Lincoln penalty area thanks to an uncharacteristic mistake by Darikwa. He then cut past Adam Jackson on the outside before firing a pass across to Jones who finished cleverly.

Unfortunately for Posh, that turned out to be just a consolation goal. Because, six minutes later, a strike from Ethan Hamilton deflected into the Peterborough net off Cian Hayes who had an indifferent afternoon. Although, he gave away the penalty and scored an own goal. He also created the joint most amount of chances in the game (one), completed the most amount of dribbles (five) and won the most amount of duels (11) in the match. He looked like one of only a couple of players who could be a threat for Peterborough alongside Jones, the goal scorer.

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Four of Lincoln’s five goals came from a set piece situation on Saturday (two free kicks, one throw in, one penalty). This caused Peterborough to move to the top of the table for goals conceded from set pieces with 17. Conceding goals has been a very big issue for them this season and a good portion of those have come from set pieces, two very worrying statistics for a side currently looking over their shoulder.

Lincoln controlled the rest of the game completely after the own goal. They managed to add a fifth on 82 minutes through a quick counter attack and clever chip from debutant James Collins. That goal cleared out half of the Stacey West stand as Posh fans began to stream out in disappointment due to the game state, league position and state of their club currently.

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