Darren Ferguson has pretty much seen it all in his managerial career, but the Bristol Street Motors Trophy tie with Stevenage certainly produced a few challenges.

At a time when a hurricane is expected to make landfall in Florida, the home of the chairman Darragh MacAnthony, one shouldn't worry about weather conditions in the UK, but the monsoon-like rain that fell in PE2 nearly brought a premature end to the Bristol Street Trophy fixture with Stevenage at the Weston Homes Stadium. 

It did provide a long delay as groundstaff battled bravely against the elements to ensure that the tie did finish with a 30-minute halt to proceedings as the game was temporarily suspended with 25 minutes still to play.

Thankfully and mercifully, conditions didn't worsen despite further rain and goals from Malik Mothersille and Jack Sparkes earned a 2-0 win for Posh. 

MOTHERSILLE opened the scoring on seven minutes as a Sparkes free-kick took a deflection and landed perfectly for the striker to nod into an empty net.

Nick Bilokapic made a couple of good stops, particularly given the conditions, keeping out Nick Freeman and Dan Kemp. 

Posh had chances of their own on the break with Abraham Odoh firing over via a deflection while Nevett produced a fine block at the other end.

On 42 minutes, Posh doubled their lead and it was a superb move from back to front with SPARKES finishing with aplomb, rifling a low shot past Ashby-Hammond.

Bilokapic kept out Freeman on 54 minutes while Odoh saw a low strike kept out at the other end before the delay following extremely heavy rain. 

Sparkes saw a free-kick claimed by Ashby-Hammond, but other than the odd foray into the box, Posh defended stoutly and earned their first clean sheet of the campaign and the third successive home win.

Posh: Bilokapic, Mothersille, De Havilland (sub Young 60min), Odoh (sub Kamara 60min), Randall, Nevett, Hayes (sub Ajiboye 60min), Sparkes, Dornelly, O'Brien-Brady (sub Collins 46min), Fernandez. Unused subs: Blackmore, Poku.

Stevenage: Ashby-Hammond, Butler, Piergianni, Freeman, Kemp, Simpson (sub Evans 78min), Smith (sub Doherty 65min), Freestone, White, Aboh (sub Brown 82min), Young. Unused subs: Roberts, Phillips, Bouzanis, Thornett.

Half-time: Peterborough United 2-0 Stevenage
Full-time: Peterborough United 2-0 Stevenage
Referee: Stephen Parkinson
Attendance: 2,231 (103 Stevenage fans)