Darren Ferguson had words of warning for his side after watching them beaten 3-0 at the Swansea.com Stadium yesterday afternoon and that was that they will have other days like that this season when they are up against top quality division.
The Peterborough manager, in his 499th game in charge of Posh, bemoaned the fact his week long preparation was torn apart by the Swans inside the first thirteen minutes of the game but had no complaints as to the scoreline although he did admit that his side had lost their head completely after finding themselves two goals adrift so early in the game.
“It was a long afternoon,” Ferguson said. “You prepare all week to play against a very good side who are excellent on the ball so the last thing you need is to be two down so quickly.
“We switched off for the first goal, gave the ball away in a bad area for the second goal, and teams in this division don’t need too many opportunities like that, and the third goal close to half time killed the game off.
“With where we are in the Championship and where Swansea are we will get days like this when you suffer at the hands of high-quality opposition. It was a shame for the fans who came down all this way, but it is going to happen.
“The early goals gave them the confidence to pop the ball about and we went the other way. Our brains went to mince after the second goal. We started to chase the ball rather than stick to our gameplan and they punished us.
“They had complete control of the game and we had to decide whether to stick or twist. If you chase them, they play through you and if you sit off they play around you, They are very good and very hard to play against,
“At least we didn’t go under in the second half. I asked the players to stick together and play as a team rather than as individuals and they stuck at it, although Dai had to make a couple of very good saves.”