Wishing Darren Ferguson had returned to Peterborough United earlier, a near-perfect away performance, midfield generals, defensive strength and another League One matchday full of awful refereeing decisions

Opinions are difficult to shift in football as in politics. Inconvenient facts are ignored or twisted to suit an individual’s preferred narrative.

Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony experiences it on a regular basis as he fights against a strong financial tide and so it is with Ferguson, the most successful manager in the club’s history, whose return for a fourth spell in charge at London Road was met with howls of protest in certain quarters.

That’s still the case even now. Even after a 3-0 Good Friday win at Shrewsbury which made it 32 points from 16 games – two points a game won the League One title for Wigan Athletic last season – six wins in eight away games on the back of some enterprising football, certainly compared to some of the stodge that went before, and four clean sheets in a row which have seen Posh take their immediate future into their own hands.

Posh might well still fall short. They are battling some big clubs with some top players for a place in the play-offs. Eighty points wasn’t enough for a top six finish last season.

It probably will be this time around, but that still requires Posh to pick up four wins and a draw from their last six matches in a tricky fixture schedule, yet if they fail that won’t be on Ferguson.

I only wish he’d returned a month earlier.

TALKING POINTS FROM SHREWSBURY 0, POSH 3…

1) It was undoubtedly a good time to take on the Shrews. Their own play-off push had fizzled out, they were shorn of their best player in Tom Bayliss – imagine how Posh would cope without Jack Taylor – and missing one of their key defenders in Tom Flanagan, while also reeling from a 6-0 capitulation at Charlton in their previous outing. But it’s still a win not to be under-estimated given Shrewsbury had won their five previous home games and Posh hadn’t won on any of their six previous visits to this ground, four of which had been lost, including one earlier this season. Shrewsbury could also have lost this game 6-0 such was the Posh dominance. It was only some poor decision-making and execution in the final third that stopped this being a perfect performance. As a result it was merely outstanding.

2) Posh revelled in an excellent playing surface at Shrewsbury. For a passing team a flat pitch is essential and Posh found one at the Montgomery Waters Stadium as they racked up a ninth League One win on the road. Remarkably given the issues in the first half of the season Posh now have the sixth best away record in the division. The pitch is not so flat at the Weston Homes Stadium which might one reason why Posh have not been as fluent at home, at against teams who are happy to sit deep and defend.

3) Posh have now scored 33 goals in 20 away games, the best record in League One, but equally important to this current run of form is an excellent defensive record. Four Football League clean sheets in a row is the best run since the 2019-20 season. If they can make it five against Exeter at London Road on Monday that would be the best run since 2013-14 and then they would have their sights on the club record of seven consecutive clean sheets set by the Fourth Division title winning side of 1973-74. It’s been a collective effort in front of a cool and composed goalkeeper in Will Norris, but Nathan Thompson’s pre-Fergie exile now seems bizarre, Nathanael Ogbeta was an inspired loan signing, Frankie Kent is back to his best and Ronnie Edwards, like all good players, has worked on his weaknesses and appears to have overcome them. He certainly looks physically stronger these days.

4) Oliver Norburn has been a near unanimous man-of-the-match in the eyes of Posh fans in each of the last two matches. His return to fitness was well-timed. He looks fresh, fit and strong and dovetails impressively with Taylor in central midfield. Norburn anticipates where a ball will drop and usually gets hold of it and keeps it. He moves it quickly so is rarely caught in possession and he doesn’t shy away from a strong tackle. Some of the Posh play through the thirds against a team who tried to pack midfield areas in the first-half was excellent. Kwame Poku, recalled in place of Harrison Burrows, found space and showed a pleasing willingness to run aggressively at opponents. Okay his end product was frustratingly poor, but I would imagine defenders worry more about him in the position just off Jonson Clarke-Harris than they would Burrows who lacks the same speed off the mark.

5) Another League One matchday and another woeful set of refereeing performances. To be fair to referee Carl Boyeson the TV angle of the controversial Posh penalty made it look more of a foul on Ephron Mason-Clark than other pictures I saw, but his general performance was still substandard. And the Posh decision was certainly more of a penalty than the dreadful ones awarded to Oxford United and Cambridge United yesterday. But the worst decision of all was the failure to spot a handball on the goalline, an automatic red card offence, by a Burton Albion defender in the early stages of their game with Barnsley. The Tykes went on to lose and automatic promotion probably has probably gone for them now. These awful decisions had massive impacts on promotion and relegation issues yesterday. It just isn’t good enough.