Saturday 29 November 2014 14:25, UK
Darren Ferguson admitted his future as Peterborough boss could be on the line after a Black Friday in front of the television cameras.
Even the reunion of the club's legendary 'Mac-Attack' partnership of Craig Mackail-Smith and Aaron Mclean couldn't stop the rot as Posh crashed to a 3-0 loss, their fifth defeat in six League One games.
They left the pitch to loud jeers at the newly-named ABAX Stadium after being torn apart by a table-topping City team led by two-goal Luke Freeman.
The classy midfielder fired the opener with a fine finish on the turn after a cut-back from former Posh full-back Mark Little had not been cleared by Jack Payne.
And City soon doubled their lead as skipper Aaron Wilbraham provided a fitting headed finish to a glorious Joe Bryan cross.
City clinched victory four minutes past the hour when Freeman drilled a low shot through a crowd of players after a quickly taken free-kick and Wilbraham missed a sitter late on to heap further misery on Ferguson's deflated side.
He said: "It is only to be expected that people are asking questions - one point out of 18 is not good enough at any club or level.
"We take the plaudits when things go well in this game and we have to deal with the criticism at a time like this.
"I've had tough times before as a manager and I will keep fighting to try to turn things around, but you have to accept you are at risk when not getting results.
"We have made a statement with our signings in recent days and we knew there would be a good atmosphere, but we let the game go flat after barely five minutes.
"We have good players capable of winning games, but we didn't do the basics right and we never got them into the game."
These are far happier times for City chief Steve Cotterill whose side cruised four points clear at the top of the League One standings by bouncing back from back-to-back defeats.
Cotterill said: "We knew a win would keep us top for another fortnight and that is what we wanted.
"It is a great reward for the players as they have been there setting the pace for a long time now.
"The 3-0 scoreline certainly doesn't flatter us and I think we could have scored more. That said we didn't play any better than we did in the defeat against Preston or in adversity against Swindon.
"I thought Luke might prove to be the difference and he scored two goals. I loved the initiative for the third goal in particular.
"I'm especially delighted with a clean sheet because we normally find a way to chuck one in, but our patience, discipline and ball retention were all first-class on a sapping pitch."
