Mark Robinson said he was disappointed with his side’s response to Peterborough’s change of approach in the second-half today.
Our Head Coach had warned the players that Peterborough would be a different proposition after half-time and the promotion chasers struck three goals without reply in the second-half.
"I told the players at half-time that we had played okay in the first-half and we had caused them problems,” Robbo said. “My message to our players at half-time was that they were not going to do the same. I could see that Darren Ferguson was quite frustrated when he came down the tunnel at half-time, so we had to be ready for what they were going to do. I said that we needed to look at the wide areas because they were probably going to flood those areas. We needed to be playing in their defensive third for the first 15 minutes, but we decided to go out and play short passes.
"I have said to the boys that all I want them to do is look back at the goals. This is going to be a process, just look at that eight minutes, and we need them to come in on Monday and look at what is wrong. I have looked at it and I have seen what is wrong. We need that openness and honesty because the goals were really poor. They flooded the wide areas, but we have to come up with solutions. You either sit back in your shape or keep the ball in front. For the second goal, we had plenty of time to get to the player who the ball dropped to, but we had no kind of shape at all. This is where we are at the moment.
“It’s a personality thing as much as anything. I even said that at 2-0 when we had just nearly scored. I was looking on the pitch and the players were just walking around. We had just had a good chance to get back to 2-1, but there was no one rallying them saying ‘come on’. We are having to do that from the sidelines. There were some positive signs in the first-half, but football is about changing pictures and you have to be able to react, that’s the disappointing thing about today.”
Robbo added that the players need to show more character to make the most of positive situations.
“Afterwards a few of the lads were saying ‘Robbo, we should have taken our chances in the first-half and it would have been a different game.’ I said, ‘what makes you think that?’ At Wigan, we were 2-0 up and we ended up having to fight for a victory. This is what they have to realise and that’s why I keep talking about personality of character to see things out. If we had gone 1-0 up in the first-half maybe we would have ended up dropping deeper and not being on the front foot. It’s about having that belief in what we are doing and belief in themselves. That only comes through processes.”
Robbo said afterwards that Shayon Harrison’s ankle injury is unlikely to be as bad as first feared as it appears to be a sprain rather than a fracture, but physio Tim Maynard will make a proper diagnosis once the swelling has eased.