Ferguson happy to see Posh 'dig out' Trophy win

Ricky Jade-Jones (left) and Abraham Odoh were both on the scoresheet for Peterborough United against Cheltenham Town

Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson was delighted to see a show of character from his team as they claimed a place in the EFL Trophy semi-finals.

Posh came from 2-1 down at half-time against League Two opponents Cheltenham Town to win 3-2 and reach the last four again, having lifted the trophy by beating Wycombe Wanderers in last season's final.

Birmingham City and Bradford City are also through, with Wrexham hosting Bolton Wanderers in the remaining quarter-final on 11 February.

"We knew what was at stake, a semi-final, one game from Wembley, and we managed to dig it out," Ferguson told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

Having gone ahead through Hector Kyprianou, Peterborough found themselves behind at the interval, prompting the Scot to make four substitutions.

"That was my fault, I picked the wrong formation. In my head, I thought it would work, as you always do as a manager, but they just went right up against us man to man and we just couldn't get through the press," Ferguson said.

"Even though we went ahead, we had no real control. We had two or three good opportunities on the counter-attack, but I had to change something at half-time and all the subs were very good when they came on."

Peterborough have conceded 55 goals in League One this season, five more than any other team in the division, but they managed to keep Cheltenham at bay in the second half and Ricky Jade-Jones' 69th-minute goal eventually gave them the win.

"The first half was a mess. Fortunately, the second was exactly how you want the team to play, energy, urgency, goals, chances created."

Asked who he would like when the semi-final draw is made, Ferguson said: "I don't care. It's a semi-final, you get who you get."

Peterborough also won the trophy under Ferguson in 2014, when they beat Chesterfield 3-1 in the final.

"It's been a good competition for me, we've won it twice and we're in another semi. [Now] we've got to reset the mentality, we've got 16 league games, and hopefully two cup matches to try and salvage something out of this season," he added.

"What I did see was players showing a bit of character, which is going to be really important moving into the last third of the season."

Peterborough return to League One action on Tuesday with an away game against Charlton Athletic.