‘Got rid of the lot’ - Peterborough United boss slams players and references Sheffield Wednesday defeat

The Posh were on course to book their spot in the next round of the Carabao Cup as they headed into injury time against Mansfield Town, coincidentally the side that knocked the Owls out of the competition this year, before giving away a late penalty in injury time.

Jonson Clarke-Harris scored either side of the break to give Peterborough a 2-1 lead, however were pegged back to 2-2 after Lucas Atkins scored from the spot to take the game to a shootout. The visitors then failed to score three of their four spotkicks and crashed out to the still unbeaten Stags.

Ferguson was not happy, and referenced their collapse at Hillsborough in last season’s play-offs during a public dressing down of his side.

"It’s staggering or maybe it’s not for this group of players,” he said afterwards as he ripped into his side. “Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised... I don’t like criticising my players in public, I very rarely do, but I’m not letting them get away with that. They absolutely bottled it.

“We lost our composure, we were losing tackles, we were kicking the ball anywhere, we looked so ragged and were all over the place. As soon of the game got tough, we went under and it disgusts me to say that. I’m not defending that.

“We knew they would play a diamond and how we could hurt it and we did. It was nothing to do with anything other then when they started putting us under pressure, we simply did not cope.

"A lot of them are still here from Hillsborough, maybe I should have got rid of the whole lot of them because a lot of them who couldn’t handle it then are still here. As a manager, you’ve got to have a team that can back up what you’re about and I’m not having that tonight.

"I don’t know why I should work with them when they do that. What’s the point? They don’t deserve it… The main credential you need as a footballer is character and, when it’s tough, they need to roll their sleeves up and keep playing the way we want to play. They know how we want to play so to stop doing it because they started to get about us is an absolute crime.”