Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson says he must be “sensible” with his team selection against Wanderers this weekend.

The Posh boss admitted his side are unlikely to finish third following their 2-0 defeat against Cheltenham on Tuesday night.

Joe Nuttall and Matty Taylor were both on target for the Robins. Ferguson named a youthful side in an attempt to combat their fixture congestion in recent weeks, which was compounded by the EFL Trophy final.

“I will definitely make changes from tonight, I was always going to,” the Peterborough chief said after the final whistle.

“I will have to assess them and see how they are. Jadel (Katongo) played a bit longer than I wanted him to but he is fine physically. We will have a look at them. Ricky (Jade-Jones) has picked up another kick, I think he will be OK.

“It might be a case on Saturday of giving some players a half each. I have got to be sensible because the priority now is the play-offs.”

Ferguson was frustrated by the defending for both goals and insist it must be better, regardless of what is on the line.

“You cannot give goals away like that, two terrible goals we gave away and it gave them energy,” he continued.

“It was the same in the second half, we kept doing things which gave them encouragement and energy.

“We knew they would start strong and we had to deal with that, we did not deal with it well enough. It could have been more than that, we have got to defend properly.

“Individual errors and in any game of football, regardless of what you are playing for or where you are, you cannot give goals away like that. We have given too many goals away this season.”

However, the Posh boss felt there were some positives to take from the contest and was impressed by a couple of youngsters.

“I am always disappointed to lose a game of football,” he reflected. “We had some really good opportunities at 2-0 and there were some positives.

“Harley Mills was really good, (Emmanuel Fernadez) I thought did well, especially in the second half – headed it, kept the ball and played well when we wanted to.

“The players have got to understand how we play but they also have to understand the message I give them.

“We don’t want to concede goals from playing out from the back, this is serious stuff and it took us too long to decide to kick, we had to do it earlier.”