POSH boss Graham Westley did not expect Swindon Town’s patched up side to give his team such a tough ride.

Despite having 11 players out through injury, suspension, personal reasons and international call-ups, Town put in a cohesive performance against United and dominated large swathes of the game.

Peterborough’s victory came as a result of a bit of fortune, Lawrence Vigouroux getting it all wrong when faced with Lee Angol charging him down, allowing the striker to score the decisive goal.

Had Posh not dealt so well with a lot of pressure after Michael Bostwick’s own goal 20 minutes from time, it could have been a different result.

This was far from the free-scoring performance Westley has been used to seeing from his team in recent weeks and admitted afterwards that Swindon’s control of the game had surprised him a little.

“We expected to come here and dominate possession, dominate the football and take our game forward, but we’re not complacent,” he said.

“Any side is going to have a period of pressure and a period of possession. When a crowd gets up, when the home team is owning the football you have to defend, you have to be organised and know what their threats are and counter them, which we did.

“There are times when you have the ball and there are times when you don’t. You have to be quick in transition and take on an attacking mindset when you’ve got the ball and take on a defensive mindset when you haven’t.

“We had to grind it out today, let’s not hide from that, but we have the quality to grind it out.

“With and without the ball there are habits that sometimes we forgot today. You have to grind it out when you’re not at your best. We did that and this is not an easy place to come.

“They have some brilliant players here. (Ben) Gladwin was first class and as good as any player you will find at this level so it was a tough contest, a tough place to come and a well-earned three points.”