Peterborough boss Ferguson would not rule out a play-off

Darren Ferguson called on his Peterborough entertainers to launch their own promotion bid after crushing title-chasing Plymouth.

A thrilling 5-2 success featured a double from Sky Bet League One’s leading scorer Jonson Clarke-Harris, who hit the 20-goal mark for the season, with Hector Kyprianou, Harrison Burrows and Jack Taylor also scoring for the hosts.

Saxon Earley and Macauley Gillesphey twice pulled Argyle back into contention, but they crashed back down to earth with a bump after reaching the Papa John’s Trophy final in midweek.

Victorious Posh remain seven points off the play-offs after a fifth win in seven games since Ferguson returned for a fourth spell in the hotseat, but the boss is aiming high.

Ferguson said: “I’m delighted with a performance and result which will give everyone belief.

“We know we are capable of scoring goals and we were clinical to do that. The only disappointment is conceding two soft goals and we have to cut that out.

“I want my teams to entertain people. When you have that talent in your squad you have to utilise it, and hopefully we can get it on a more consistent basis.

“We’ve beaten one of the best teams in the league and if we get that sort of performance of intensity and quality every game, we’ll give ourselves a chance.

“All the teams above us have to play each other, but we have to focus on doing our job. To get into the play-offs we’re going to have to go on a real run.

“It’s very strange to me that we haven’t been able to beat teams above us as it’s always something I’ve loved doing.

“We’ve beaten clubs like Leeds and Leicester here many years ago and we have to believe we can beat anyone again.”

Plymouth boss Steven Schumacher said: “It’s a tough result to take.

“I feel we caused our own problems and when you do that against a Peterborough side with good forwards, you’re going to struggle.

“It looks like a defensive issue when you concede five goals, but I thought we were just a bit off it throughout the whole team.

“We haven’t said that about this team too often this season, so I’m not going to go overboard about it, but we do have to learn from it.

“It just shows that if you’re not at your usual standard in this division, you get punished.

“This was our fifth tough game in 14 days and that’s taken a lot out of everyone. Thankfully we’ve now got a clear week to go again.

“We have an honest group of lads who know when it’s not quite right.

“We’ll address it and move on. We’ve done it before and we’ll have to do it again.”