Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony has issued a blistering attack on his club’s “spoilt” players and admitted he is “angry” with manager Grant McCann ahead of his side's visit to Portman Road on Saturday.
Posh are sixth in League One, 11 points behind the Blues, following Friday’s 2-1 home defeat to Barnsley, their fourth successive defeat in all competitions.
In the League, they have lost their last three and nine in total since the start of the campaign following their relegation from the Championship in May.
"We were out-played, out-coached, out-pressed and could have been 3-0 down after 20 minutes,” MacAnthony said of the defeat to the Tykes on his Hard Truth podcast.
"The worst thing was we had 30 minutes to get back into the game after going 2-1 down, but we didn’t even manage a shot on target. Where’s the hunger?
"Barnsley had an answer for everything we did. They forced us into a Plan B and we didn’t have one.
"It was abject. We shouldn’t be losing nine games in this league before Christmas, never mind by the start of December. We don’t need to be arrogant, but we should be playing on the front foot in this division.
"The players are spoilt rotten. We have the most expensive management team I’ve ever recruited.
"The players have everything they need. We’ve even hired an assistant chef now! Maybe we should knock spending £5k on away trips on the head and remind them how hard life used to be.
"We have players who should be dominating League One games. They are on good wages, but we are not getting value for money.
"If I was the captain of the team I’d have dragged the players in on Saturday morning and asked them what’s going on? I doubt that happened though as they probably had the weekend off.
"It has to change attitude-wise. They need to wake up and smell the coffee and start doing their jobs better from 1-11 and win some football matches.
"There has to be some accountability. Barnsley came down with us last season, sold some of their better players and yet a side who have spent four months together looked much better than one that has been together for two years. We improved our squad, the younger players are better and we sold only one player.
"I keep getting told this a great group of players and now they need to prove it. They need to show some spirit and realise what is expected of everyone employed by Peterborough United because what I saw on Friday was unacceptable.
"None of us, including me, were good enough. I understand the criticism and the booing as I’m as frustrated as the fans.”
MacAnthony says that although manager McCann’s job is not in jeopardy, he’s less than impressed with the former Hull City boss.
"Grant can defend himself,” he added. "I’m not going to sack him, but I am angry with him, as I’d be angry with any manager, Fergie or whoever, at a time like this.
"Grant is a title winner. He often out-coaches the opposition, but maybe he needs to change things up.
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, and if we play like we did against Barnsley then Ipswich will beat us.
"We need to show some balls. If you’re going to win promotion from League One you need to win at places like Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday. We’ve won at Ipswich the last two times we’ve played there. We have to show up and perform for 90 minutes.”