Darren Ferguson doesn't enjoy his return to Peterborough

Darren Ferguson admitted a first defeat as Doncaster boss confirmed what he already knew - that much hard work lies ahead.

Ferguson suffered a dismal return to Peterborough - a club he led to three promotions and a Johnstone's Paint trophy triumph during two spells as boss - as his new Rovers charges were demolished to drop back into the bottom four.

Two players signed by Ferguson combined for the opening goal as Erhun Oztumer's corner was headed in by Gaby Zakuani on nine minutes.

Turkish ace Oztumer went from provider to scorer when doubling Posh's advantage nine minutes before the break after being picked out by Souleymane Coulibaly.

Ferguson's hopes of a comeback were dashed two minutes into the second period as Posh left-back Callum Elder fired the first goal of his career - bursting into the box to score after his initial effort had been blocked.

And Rovers were put out of their misery by a fine 25-yard strike from Conor Washington - another Ferguson recruit - with 17 minutes to go.

Michael Bostwick hacked a Butler header off the line and the post kept out a Nathan Tyson effort as Rovers drew a blank.

Ferguson said: "I'm really, really pleased with the reception I got and I appreciate that because I had some enjoyable times at Peterborough.

"It is probably the only good thing that came out of the day because it wasn't the result we wanted by any means.

"The game was open and it was stretched, and that immediately made Peterborough favourites as they used the pace in their team to great effect.

"I have to give credit to them as they were better than us in every department. You get games of football where you have to hold your hands up and take your medicine.

"It's my second game at the end of my first week in the job. We already knew we had a lot of work to do and nothing I saw in this game changed that opinion."

Posh became the top-scorers in League One as they went on the rampage, but a clean sheet was just as satisfying for Graham Westley.

He said: "It was a really positive performance and particularly good to see it come complete with the clean sheet.

"Everyone will know we have not been as tidy as we should have been defensively and we focused on that in training.

"Going forward we were breath-taking at times and it could easily have been 10.

"Not too many teams in League One would fancy facing the sort of football we played this afternoon and we want to be producing that sort of quality on a regular basis.

"We want to score lots of goals and we have showed it is possible to play with adventure and openness while being resolute."