League One round-up: Portsmouth promotion rivals Peterborough without four players due to Covid-related reasons in loss... Sunderland bemoan slow start

The Posh are well-fancied to be promoted this season, after recruiting the likes of Jonson Clarke-Harrison, Sammie Szmodics and Ryan Broom.

But they made a poor start against a Stanley side who are among the favourites to be relegated.

Dion Charles netted a sublime volley on the stroke of half-time before Tariq Uwakwe doubled the hosts' advantage with five minutes remaining.

Peterborough were without key-duo Siriki Dembele and Reece Brown, who both tested positive for Covid-19. In addition, Idris Kanu and Bobby Copping are both self-isolating for 14 days as they live with Dembele.

Ferguson felt his squad still had enough quality to win the game, though, and admitted the Posh shouldn't have dropped points.

He told the Peterborough Telegraph: ‘It’s just another thing we have to cope with as managers. But the health of the players has to come first.

‘It did affect the starting line-up, but we had enough good players on the pitch to play better than we did.

‘We just didn’t perform at all in the first half. We seemed happy to play at Accrington’s pace and we kept going too long too early which was actually the opposite of what we had worked on.

'It’s important this season to start well because who knows how long this season will last? We can’t afford to drop points like we did and now we face two games against teams who will be up there at the end of the season.

‘We have to find a way of playing with the urgency we showed in the second half from the start. We have to be braver on the ball and pass through teams.’

Sunderland and Oxford were among the other sides tipped to go up who dropped points.

The Black Cats were held to a 1-1 draw against Bristol Rovers at the Stadium of Light.

Speaking to the Sunderland Echo, boss Phil Parkinson rued his side's slow start to the game.

He said: ‘We couldn’t have started any worse, against a team that just came to time waste.

‘Obviously that is exacerbated by the fact that we don’t really know what the rule is about the ball boys. Sometimes you were allowed to get a ball quickly, sometimes you weren’t.

‘The goalkeeper was holding on to the ball for ages. I thought the start was terrible and we became a bit frantic after that, but once we got into our rhythm and started playing, we got better and better as the game wore on.

‘In the second half, we completely dominated the game and should have won it comfortably. We got the goal but also had several other chances.’

Oxford conquered Pompey in last season's play-off semi-finals before being beaten by Wycombe at Wembley.

The U's began this term with a 2-0 loss at Lincoln, although Karl Robinson thought the visitors dominated the majority of the game.

He told the Oxford Mail: ‘I think as a whole, we outplayed them, we dominated the ball, we asked more questions in the second half than we did in the first half.

‘We switched off for the first goal, it wasn’t a free-kick but then we switched off defending a set-piece.

‘We got beat 2-0 and there’s the crux of what happened in the game.’

Fleetwood lost in the play-off semi-finals to Wycombe in July but opened this term with a 2-1 win over 10-man Burton.

Hull and Charlton both started with 2-0 wins after being relegated from the Championship.

The Tigers beat Gillingham, while the Addicks picked up a success at Crewe.

League Two champions Swindon started where they left off with a 3-1 victory over Rochdale and Plymouth edged Blackpool 1-0.

Northampton were involved in an entertaining 2-2 draw with AFC Wimbledon, while Doncaster were held to a 1-1 draw with MK Dons.