Brooker spares City's blushes as junior Fergie sees red

Steve Brooker  scored a late winner for the second successive game to spare Bristol City the ordeal and humiliation of going to extra-time in the Carling Cup.

Late winner: Steve Brooker won it for Bristol City

Brooker rose to head in Michael McIndoe's 86th-minute corner after skipper Louis Carey’s equaliser early in the second half.

But League One newcomers Peterborough took a deserved first-half lead through the dangerous George Boyd and last season’s Championship playoff finalists looked to be heading to extra-time.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson, son of Manchester United manager Sir Alex, was sent off with ten minutes to go and insisted his side did not deserve to lose.

He said: 'We don’t deserve to be out and I can’t believe we are. There were huge parts of the game we were in control of.

'It was just a lack of concentration from our lads that gave away the corner that led to their second goal.

'I don’t know what I was sent off for but there was no dissent.'

City boss Gary Johnson made five changes to his starting line-up that won 1-0 at Blackpool on Saturday but was left wondering if he had underestimated Posh as early as the 17th minute.

City were opened up by first-touch passing move into their area and after Craig Mackail-Smith’s shot had been blocked by keeper Chris Weale, Boyd pounced on the rebound to put Peterborough ahead.

The West Country side were dealt another blow when promising right-back Christian Ribeiro suffered a serious knee injury and had to be carried off on a stretcher, 28 minutes into his full debut.

The game had to be stopped for eight minutes while Ribeiro was able to be moved just one yard off the pitch and was later taken to hospital.

Johnson said: 'We had to try and win for Christian. He was just getting into his debut and it’s very sad for him. He’s a strong lad and he will be back.

'It broke up our momentum losing Christian but we hung on in there like we do and avoided extra-time, which was important.'

City had to rely on centre-back Carey to head in Jamie McAllister’s delivery to draw them level on 53 minutes while Weale, who started in place of injured City No 1 keeper Adriano Basso, had to be alert to keep out MacLean and Boyd before Brooker’s winner.