Darren Ferguson: Peterborough United need more 'arrogance' to reach play-offs

Darren Ferguson returned to Peterborough in January for a fourth spell in charge

Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson believes his players need to show more "arrogance" to secure a place in the League One play-offs.

Posh are nine points adrift of the top six after losing 1-0 at leaders Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.

And they have another vital game on Tuesday, at home to Shrewsbury Town.

"We've got 13 games left, we're going to have to win a lot of them to get in the play-offs but I think we're still capable of doing it," said Ferguson.

His side were unfortunate at Hillsborough, where a cross by Jaden Brown deflected into the net off Posh defender Nathan Thompson for the game's only goal.

It left them ninth in the table going into the meeting with Shrewsbury, who are one place and one point better off.

"The first half [against Wednesday] was what I wanted out of the game, in terms of controlling it generally," Ferguson told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

"We played some great stuff, played through their shape well but probably didn't create enough in the last third.

"Certainly their fans were frustrated at half-time - there's not many teams who've done that and controlled the game as well as we did."

He continued: "Second half we didn't start passing the ball again for 20 minutes and you have to pass the ball against these, we couldn't just go route one, we had to play through them and affect their shape."

Kwame Poku had the opportunity to equalise for Posh but Brown closed him down and the chance was gone.

Ferguson added: "Kwame was through, he's got to get across the defender - these are massive moments in games like this because the defender's then got to bring him down and it's a penalty and 10 men or we probably score.

"If the players want to eventually play in the Championship, this is exactly what the Championship's about, it's relentless.

"We've got some really good players in that dressing room and they've got to have a little bit more arrogance about the ability they've got."