Darren Ferguson: Peterborough United boss says international break has come at right time
- Published
Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson described Portsmouth's win over his team as "lucky"
Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson believes the international break will help his team as they look to at least secure a play-off place in League One.
They had won five league games in a row prior to Saturday's 1-0 home defeat by third-tier leaders Portsmouth.
Posh are fourth in the table with eight games to go, with seven points to make up on second-placed Derby.
"We can have a breather now. The rest, mentally and physically, has come just at the right time," Ferguson said.
"We can freshen them up for the last push. We are still very much in it and we've just got to focus on ourselves."
The Scot described Portsmouth's win as "lucky" but told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire that the club had made a mistake by allocating 4,000 tickets to the visitors for their fans.
"When you've got 4,000 behind you it makes a difference. I don't know who's idea that was, but it wasn't a good one," Ferguson said.
"I don't think we should have given them 4,000 personally."
Peterborough host bottom club Carlisle United in their next game on 29 March before travelling to Leyton Orient on 1 April.
After that, they will put their league ambitions on hold for a few days for the EFL Trophy final against Wycombe Wanderers at Wembley on 7 April.
Despite the result against Portsmouth, Ferguson was happy with his team's overall performance.
"We controlled large parts of the game. Their game plan was to just get it forward and use (Colby) Bishop to win them balls and get second balls," he added.
"When we passed the ball, some of our play was fantastic. The game plan was good, (Joel) Randall was outstanding, always finding space in the pocket.
"We just didn't have that clinical touch. But if we play like that in the last eight games, I think we'll be fine.
"I said before the game that we'd need to give a really good performance to win and unfortunately we got the first part, but not the most important part.
"I've still got a lot of confidence, and the players are in a really good place."