Darren Ferguson has hailed the endeavour of his team after nine-man Peterborough United secured a dramatic 2-1 victory over MK Dons at London Road.

The Dons finished the derby clash with a sizable numerical advantage after Nathaniel Knight-Percival and Mark Little were both given red cards - the first of which coming as early as the seventh minute.

Goals from Lee Tomlin and Britt Assombalonga ultimately proved sufficient, with Posh forced to produce a herculean defensive effort to defend their lead after Izale McLeod halved the deficit with 15 minutes remaining.

When asked if "heroic" was a fitting word to describe his team's performance, Ferguson told BBC Sport: "Well, that's one word you could use.

"It was a fantastic effort from my players to make sure they won the game. Numerically MK Dons obviously had an advantage early on, and then another when we went down to nine men.

"My players deserve all the credit in the world because that had nothing to do with tactics, it was just pure guts to win a game of football and I thought they were brilliant."

Ferguson's men moved to within two points of Leyton Orient at the summit of League One following the win.

Peterborough travel to Premier League outfit Sunderland on Tuesday for a third-round Capitol One Cup clash.