Posh were left languishing in the League One relegation zone after early goals in both halves from Jordon Clark and Liam Kelly, who put through his own net.

Harry Leonard hit the bar for the hosts, who once again saw a number of chances go begging as they suffered back-to-back defeats.

“I think you can press play from the interviews from last week and the week before, and it’s the same,” said Savage. “You can’t start a game like that or a second half.

“If you can’t defend in the opening moments of halves or take your chances, you won’t win games of football. That’s the most important thing.

“It’s not about shots or chances, because we’ve had more again, but if you can’t take your chances it’s tough.

“We’ve hit the underside of the bar from four yards, we’ve had other great chances but we haven’t taken them.

“The ease of the goal is not acceptable. We have that desire to score, but when you’re creating all those chances and can’t score you won’t win games and it’s tough to take.

“It’s the moment we’re in. You can’t fault the effort or desire in this group because it’s big, they care, they keep going. But, inevitably, you can’t keep missing these chances.”

The on-song Hatters maintained the pace with the play-off contenders with a fourth win on the spin.

And boss Jack Wilshere, whose side have picked up 12 points in 11 days, said: “Credit to the players because there have been a lot of games in a short space of time.

“The players on the pitch, the ones who have been playing recently, they set the culture. Players watching from the side are looking on and see what they need to do to get into this team.

“We need that competition for places. When you get on the pitch you have to recognise that’s your moment to shine and keep your shirt.

“This wasn’t our best performance, that might be a bit harsh because we threatened to take the game away from them in spells.

“We killed their energy and intensity with that early goal, but we lost our intensity and slowed down.

“The message was the same at half-time, about starting the half fast, and we managed to get that second goal.

“We’ve had a little bit of illness. We need that mentality that there are no excuses.

“We should be standing here with two clean sheets in a row, which we’re not. But credit to the players because there was a period after we scored where they had a spell.

“But I wasn’t worried. The lads are developing a nice partnership. They love defending the box which you need to do.”