The FA Cup third round match at Everton between Posh youngster Tyler Young and his father Ashley garnered a lot of media attention prior to the game, which may have been a factor in the decision to move the game away from the weekend in the first place.
Ashley came off the bench for the home team after 73 minutes, but Tyler stayed on the bench as Posh brought on forward Malik Mothersille with two minutes of normal time left. This prevented the potentially historic moment from happening.
By the time, Iliman Ndiaye’s penalty made it 2-0 in stoppage time, Posh had no remaining substitutes.
The Posh boss said he did want to bring on the 18-year-old but simply had to do the best for this team.
Thursday night was the fourth time in Young’s Posh career that he had made the first team squad. His only appearance came in the final 28 minutes of the 2-0 EFL Trophy victory over Stevenage in October.
Ferguson said: “The last substitution was a difficult one because I did want to get Tyler on. As much as I wanted to get him on with his dad, I had to do what’s right for my team.
It was very difficult ,but I’ve got to do what’s best for the team. If the game had been 2-0 at that point, I would have put him on, but at 1-0 I couldn’t.
If I sent a central midfielder on at 1-0, I’ve got three forwards sitting on the bench wondering what’s going on.
“One of their players had a bit of a pop at me, which is bang out of order, but I’ve got to do what’s best for out team and, at that point, it’s 1-0 and we’re trying to get a result.
“Quite honestly, I did put Tyler on the bench and I gave him every opportunity but I’ve got to do what’s best for the team. I am sure they will remember it.”
