Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson expressed his disappointment with his team’s second-half performance after their loss on the opening day of the League One season. Ferguson felt his team went down “a bit of a whimper” as they struggled to mount a comeback after trailing 2-0, with both goals coming in the last 10 minutes of the first half.
Despite a strong start where Ferguson’s side appeared to be the better team, they were undone by long-range efforts from Anthony Evans and Ben Wiles, both of which were deflected past goalkeeper Jed Steer. Ferguson noted that Huddersfield, having played at a higher level last season, demonstrated the gap between the teams, with the second-half performance highlighting that disparity.
Ferguson said: “I’m disappointed with the result. We were the better team in the first third. We created the better chances and more than matched them. We looked good and gave them problems with the stuff we worked on.
“For some reason, we lost confidence and belief after they scored the first goal. The second goal was a real blow. Once they went ahead, their confidence grew while ours seemed to diminish. It’s crucial to maintain belief.
“In the second half, Huddersfield looked too comfortable for my liking. I tried changing the formation twice to shift the momentum, but we still struggled and couldn’t create many chances. We had one opportunity where Joel Randall should have hit the target. Cian Hayes came on and showed some energy, but the changes in formation didn’t work, and we ended up fading away.
“We managed to beat the press most of the time until they scored, but after that, we seemed to get nervous. We’re not changing our approach—we’ve been successful with it before. The players have the ability, but they didn’t make the right decisions or adapt as needed when building from the back. I’ve told them that if I’m shouting instructions from the sidelines, the opposing manager can hear and adjust accordingly. If they make decisions naturally, it’s much harder for the opposition to counter.”
“Huddersfield serve as a good benchmark for the top end of the league. By the end of the match, it felt like a Championship team was facing a League One team physically, and they had the upper hand. The first goal is always crucial. Ricky-Jade Jones was a threat in the first half and came close with a shot just by the post. We should have done better with a three-on-three situation—Chris Conn-Clarke should have passed it back to Joel.
“It’s a disappointing start for everyone, including the fans. However, they’ll see that Huddersfield looked like a Championship team, and that’s the level we’re aiming to reach. We need to learn quickly from this experience. There’s a lot to take from the game, and we’ll learn more from facing such strong opposition than we typically would. Ultimately, we were well beaten.
Ferguson will be looking for a response when his team travels to the Kassam Stadium to play Championship side Oxford in the EFL Cup on Tuesday night (August 13, 7:45 pm).”
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