Darren Ferguson: Peterborough boss demands more fight after Cardiff loss
- Published
Peterborough are trying to avoid an immediate return to League One following last season's promotion
Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson has called on his players to "show some fight and be professional" following Wednesday's 4-0 defeat at Cardiff City.
Posh remain 22nd in the table and two points from safety, but they are now 12 adrift of Cardiff in 20th place.
Ferguson had to manage without defender Mark Beevers, who was ruled out with a hamstring problem.
"We changed formation three or four times. It's not working at the moment," he told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
"From top to bottom in terms of the fundamentals of the game - tackles, second balls, headers, set-pieces, quality on the ball, running - they annihilated us.
"To see a performance like that is worrying. I can't repeat what I said to them at half-time.
"They just completely overpowered us. You can call it (lack of) confidence, you can call it lack of ability, but you've got to show some fight and be professional."
Peterborough have only taken four points from 15 away games in the Championship this season and there was no bounce in south Wales from last weekend's FA Cup win over QPR.
They next host Preston North End on Saturday before two crucial, must-win games against Reading and Derby, who are 21st and 23rd.
"Again, I'll take responsibility, I'm the manager, blah blah blah, but these players have got to take responsibility for something. It was absolute nonsense," said Ferguson.
"We all know this month is pivotal to the season, the biggest we've had since last April.
"We started it well in the cup and you think 'hopefully it's not another false dawn'. You can lose games of football, especially at this level, but the manner in which we lost was simply not acceptable."
Ferguson confirmed that Beevers' problem was the same hamstring he injured in the home game against Cardiff in August, after which he was out for almost two months.
"He wanted to give it a go, but there was no way I could risk him and then have him out for six weeks," the Scot added.