Win at a cost for Portsmouth promotion rivals as Peterborough United dealt blow ahead of promotion showdown

Peterborough closed the gap on Pompey with their fifth league win on the spin against Stevenage last night.

But it was success at a cost for Darren Ferguson’s side, as influential midfielder Hector Kyprianou picked up his 10th yellow card of the season in the 3-1 success - ruling him out of Saturday’s promotion showdown with John Mousinho’s side.

The 22-year-old picked up a first-half caution for a foul on former Blues defender Dan Butler, ruling him out of the clash at London Road and Posh’s trip to Cheltenham, if it isn’t rescheduled for international call-ups.

Peterborough were made to work for the victory over Steve Evans’ play-off chasers, with the visitors working first-half opportunities before Harrison Burrows fired in a penalty two minutes before the break after Luther Wildin took out danger man Ephron Mason-Clark in the box.

Jamie Reid had a header saved by Jed Steer after the restart, before goals from Jadel Katongo and Kwame Poku put firmly in the ascendancy.

Nick Freeman reduced the arrears with five minutes left and Steer saved from sub Kane Hemmings late on to fend off Stevenage setting up a grandstand finale.

Peterborough are now nine points behind Pompey with a game in hand, with Ferguson believing his side are coming to the boil at just the right time.

He told the Peterborough Telegraph: ‘We’re finding ways of winning games and we’ve managed to do that again with another three goals. We’ve overcome a tough opponent but we were nowhere near our quality.

‘I can’t expect perfect all of the time though, what I need is that we find a way to win when we’re not good and tonight we were ruthless.

‘It’s a reverse to what we’re used to and we’re being ruthless at the right time of the season.

‘I’ve been delighted with how the players have reacted. I said to them a while ago, get to March in touch and then that’s the pivotal month.

‘That was the one we had to really go for it, we’ve now got two games left in it, both at home.

‘Saturday takes care of itself and Cheltenham will probably be off but we need to come back from the break with the momentum to really go for it. There’s no doubt we’ve got a chance.’