Ferguson demands Dembele apology for red card

Posted Thursday, January 02, 2020 by PA

Darren Ferguson called on Siriki Dembele to apologise after he was sent off a minute following his introduction as a substitute in Peterborough’s 2-1 defeat at Lincoln.

Ivan Toney gave Posh the lead in the first half, but the Imps deservedly drew level with Tyler Walker’s deflected effort midway through the second half.

The turning point of the game arrived with 19 minutes to go, when Dembele was sent off for lashing out at Joe Morrell having come on for Mohamed Eisa a minute earlier.

The Imps then pressed in search of a winner which arrived in the 89th minute, as Jorge Grant curled home a fabulous free-kick.

“The red card has changed the game and unfortunately I cannot defend what he has done there,” Ferguson said.

“It is not even an incident that precedes it. I sent him on to change the game, but not like that. He needs to apologise for that.

“I felt at 1-0 we were in control, they scored through a deflected goal and at 1-1, even with 10 men, I thought we looked a threat going forward. The players didn’t deserve to lose that game. They put in a real shift.”

The defeat completed a miserable festive period for Posh, who lost 3-0 to Doncaster on Boxing Day and 4-0 to Rotherham on Sunday.

“It has been a nightmare at Christmas for us,” admitted Ferguson.

“This period has not been good in terms of results, but we have to ride the storm. We have to dig in and show that we can turn it around.”

Lincoln boss Michael Appleton made a tactical change at half-time, replacing Michael O’Connor with Jack Payne and moving the more creative Grant from the left into the centre of midfield.

“We knew we needed to do something to win the game and that’s why we made the change,” he said.

“I felt we needed to switch the play a bit quicker. Michael has done brilliant for us with his experience and steel in the middle of the park.

“But Jorge has the ability to switch the play, which I think we needed in the second half.

“We then brought big John [Akinde] on to try and rough them up a bit, which he did.

“The sending off definitely helped us and we got a bit of luck with the deflection for Tyler’s goal, but we created umpteen opportunities, their keeper [Christy Pym] had a good day and the post stopped us.

“You’re wondering if it’s going to be one of those days, but then we got the free-kick. If that free-kick had been in the 20th minute, I wonder if he would have scored.

“But he knew it was one of the last kicks of the game and concentration levels have to be ultra-high. You also need the technique to do it. As soon as it left his foot I knew it was a goal.”