Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson believe his side sent a message by beating Lincoln 3-0.
The play-off chasing Posh inflicted the Imps’ first home League One defeat of the season at Sincil Bank.
And they did it in style as Jonson Clarke-Harris, Jack Taylor and Joe Ward all got on the scoresheet.
Jamaica striker Clarke-Harris started the scoring with his 24th goal of a fruitful campaign and Ward finished the job with his second goal in as many games.
“To come here and do that to them is a big win for us and a deserved win,” said Ferguson.
“I said to the players that it was no fluke that they were unbeaten from 18 or 19 home games here.
“I felt that the first goal would be key. We got it and we never looked back after that.
“At that point we had a massive chance to make it 2-0 by half-time and you don’t want to regret that.
“At half-time I said to them that we have to be ruthless and when we get opportunities that we need to put the game to bed and we did that.
“Today answered a lot of questions because when you’ve only got nine games to go, I wanted a reaction from (the 3-0 defeat at home to) Cheltenham. I know we beat Burton (on Tuesday), but I wanted to see what we could do.
“We’ve come and beaten Lincoln at home, three goals and a clean sheet. Maybe Cheltenham wasn’t the worst result, and maybe it was the gee up we needed.
“We know we need to be consistent. We move on to Derby, that takes care of itself and it’s a game I’m really looking forward to now.”
Lincoln have suffered back to back to defeats and won just once in their last eight games, but this was the first home league loss in front of their own fans.
Imps boss Mark Kennedy said: “I’m really disappointed, particularly in the first half.
“We spoke about things and we haven’t come out and done that. We spoke about intensity and energising the ground and it hasn’t happened.
“We were just so, so passive which was really disappointing. The performance was everything we didn’t talk about.
“It’s really black and white, we all take our responsibilities. The lads have been really good this season and I’m loath to criticise them, but just taking instructions on board didn’t happen.
“I said to them before the game that I really wanted bravery off the ball and commit to the actions that we want to do. Particular players struggled with that. It was a poor first-half performance.
“I’m not going to stand here and criticise the players at all, the responsibility is on the players and the staff. The disappointing thing is we worked on it and we’ve worked on it for eight months.
“I wouldn’t like to say this out loud, but we’ve really struggled against a back four this year. It’s a bravery to commit to what we want to do.
“When we’ve played against a back four we’ve been really poor and today of all the days against their team it’s happened again.”
