Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson was spot on with his team selection at Cheltenham Town on Tuesday night.

It’s true a 2-0 scoreline in favour of an impressively aggressive home team flattered only Posh, but the result was incidental to the visitors and the boss knew it. He had a bigger picture to look at and he was right to put the welfare of his own star players ahead of the concerns of Burton Albion and Cambridge United, two teams still haunted by relegation thoughts as the last weekend of the season looms. They’ve had 45 games to secure their own survival and both have final-day fixtures against relegated clubs to ensure they stay above Cheltenham. They should be able to look after their own business without worrying what other clubs are up to, certainly not ones who have earnt the right to rest players who have performed above expectations this season.

No team in the country has played more competitive games than Posh this season. If they reach the play-off final Fergie’s men (and boys) will have played 64 meaningful matches with the youngest squad in League One, if not in the top four divisions. The average age of last night’s team was 21.8. It would have been 21.1 without the presence of Jonson Clarke-Harris. That average age has regularly been under 23 all season so it’s not as though a bunch of kids have suddenly taken the place of some gnarled veterans for a one-off match.

Eight players in the Posh squad have played more than 50 games. These are the sort of numbers that would have Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta crying in front of the media while trying to undermine the rich traditions of English competitions. It’s no surprise some have shown signs of fatigue lately.

Posh weren’t messing with the ‘integrity’ of the competition last night. They weren’t flouting an EFL rule regarding team strength which Derby County fans, no doubt terrified they might not get a point at home against rock-bottom Carlisle on Saturday to win promotion, had splashed on Twitter. Who apart from Ferguson and his staff, with their access to sports science stats and data, is eligible to decide the best team for any given fixture? The apparent first XI were stuffed 5-0 by Oxford United recently when they collectively ran out of legs after about 30 minutes. Before that they had lost 3-1 at home to Carlisle when they could easily have shipped six goals. Did Cheltenham’s relegation rivals want that team to play last night against a side who played an intense pressing game?

It was the eighth Posh game in 25 days (six in the last 16 days) and there are (hopefully) four big ones that now follow on in quick succession and they carry far more importance to the manager, who has a duty to the club’s fans to have the better players in the best possible shape to challenge for the Championship.

There were Posh fans who believed Ferguson should have gone strong last night in the hope of winning 7-0 which would then presumably be followed by a win over Bolton on Saturday and a defeat for Derby at home to the worst team in the division. On the balance of probabilities I prefer Fergie’s way. Those same fans moaning about the starting XI last night would probably have moaned even more if Ronnie Edwards or Josh Knight had played and picked up injuries at Cheltenham that kept them out of much bigger matches. Last night’s game showed what could happen if they are ever absent. Last night also showed how lucky Posh have been with injuries throughout this season as the gulf in standard between some regular starters and their back-ups is vast.

I suspect the likes of Hector Kyprianou, Archie Collins, Knight, Edwards and Harrison Burrows will start against Bolton at the Weston Homes Stadium on Saturday. Momentum is almost as important as a fit squad as play-off football approaches, but that will again be a decision for Ferguson rather than panicking fans of Posh and other clubs. Ferguson has worked wonders to get this side so far so quickly. He has earned our trust as he did with his four previous Posh promotions.

Some of the back-up boys in action last night did their future prospects at Posh no good at all. It’s clear goalkeeper Nicholas Bilokapic has little confidence, particularly with the ball at his feet, and playing behind a shaky pair of centre-backs was never going to change that. Summer signing Ryan De Havilland was out-performed in central midfield by Charlie O’Connell who played a lot of the second half of the season as a right-back for Oxford City, the worst team in the National League.

There were encouraging signs amid the dross. Teenage full-backs James Dornelly and Harley Mills shone, especially the latter who completed 90 minutes on his Football League debut at the age of 18, while Malik Mothersille looks a class act.

They certainly didn’t look out of place at Whaddon Road last night. Unfortunately some of the older, more experienced players did.