Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson celebrated the perfect birthday present as his side came from behind to beat Ipswich 2-1.

Ferguson, 49 today, saw his promotion-chasing side recover from the early blow of falling behind to close in on the top two.

James Norwood fired Ipswich ahead in the sixth minute but Posh replied six minutes before the break when leading scorer Jonson Clarke-Harris headed in his 17th goal of the campaign from Dan Butler’s cross.

And the turnaround was completed five minutes into the second half when Joe Ward unleashed a spectacular free-kick past Town goalkeeper Tomas Holy.

Holy twice denied Sammie Szmodics further goals, with the same player also seeing a strong penalty appeal ignored before Peterborough had to rely on a super double-save from Christy Pym to deny Troy Parrott and Josh Harrop as Ipswich searched for a late leveller.

Ferguson said: “We conceded a soft goal to fall behind and I felt that set us back a little, but from the 20-minute mark onwards we were totally dominant.

“There was a real energy to our team and we played some great stuff.

“We felt we could hurt Ipswich in wide areas and did that for the equaliser, and we carried on our performance into the second half.

“A terrific free-kick got us in front and we could have won by more, especially with a blatant penalty for handball being turned down.

“Christy then came up with a big save at the end to make sure we got the win we deserved.

“I’m really pleased with the players as they have delivered two massive performances over the last few days.

“Turning 49 is a bit of an irrelevant birthday really, but the three points was definitely the best present.”

Ipswich assistant boss Stuart Taylor said: “We’re obviously disappointed not to come away with the result we were looking for.

“We set out to be positive by attacking Peterborough rather than giving them too much respect.

“We knew they were one of the best attacking teams in the league so the intention was to flip it around and get after them.

“We got the start we were looking for by going a goal ahead but we let one cross too many come into our box, didn’t deal with it and lost our lead.

“We’re disappointed with the way we gave away the free-kick early in the second half for Peterborough’s second goal, although it was a fantastic finish from them.

“Their goalkeeper made an unbelievable save late on from Troy and unfortunately we couldn’t get the ball into the back of the net again.

“But I definitely think a draw would have been a fair result.”