'The alternative was to' - the Peterborough United reponse to Darren Ferguson criticism after 4,000 members of Portsmouth faithful celebrate 1-0 win at Weston Homes Stadium

Peterborough United’s head of ticketing has defended Posh’s decision to hand more than 4,000 away tickets to Pompey fans for last Saturday's  1-0 defeat at the Weston Homes Stadium.

Chris Brewer took to X, formerly Twitter, to reveal the thinking behind the commitment, which was criticised by Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson in his post-match interviews. 

Speaking after witnessing his side slip further behind League One leaders Pompey and second-placed Derby County in the race for promotion following Kusini Yengi’s 77th-minute strike, the Scot said: ‘When you’ve got 4,000 behind you it makes a difference. I don’t know whose idea that was, but it wasn’t a very good one. I don’t think we should have given them 4,000.’

However, in response, Brewer said it would have been ‘crazy’ to turn down the extra £40,000 of income that was generated by allowing more Blues supporters in. He added that Posh had won before when 4,000 opposition fans had been inside the ground for a game.

Brewer wrote: ‘We didn’t even sell our home end out, the alternative was to turn down £40k in revenue and leave an area empty? That would have been a crazy decision. If we had won it wouldn’t have been mentioned. We also have won games before when we’ve given the away club a 4,000 allocation.

‘We would have loved to give the GH Display Stand to home fans instead and we held off giving Portsmouth tickets for weeks for that reason, but unfortunately the demand wasn’t there.’

Pompey were initially handed 2,300 seats in the GH Display Stand behind one of the goals for the League One contest. But that figure was later increased by 1,600, with Posh opening up two blocks in the Main Stand to cope with Blues demand.

Pompey fans were rewarded with a 1-0 victory that moves them a major step closer to a return to the Championship. For Ferguson & Co, who sit fourth in the table - seven points behind Derby and 13 behind John Mousinho’s side table-toppers - it means the play-offs are likely to be their best route back to the second tier.

Saturday’s attendance at the Weston Homes Stadium was 12,774, with the 4,019 travelling Blues fans present representing nearly a third of the crowd inside the ground. Posh’s home has a capacity of 15,314. Their biggest crowd of the season to date was the 12,927 who took in their FA Cup third-round exit at the hands of Leeds back in January.

Posh have an average home attendance of 9,062 this season, compared to Pompey’s average of 18,713.