Luke Williams praises his Peterborough players for keeping their foot on the gas

Peterborough manager Luke Williams praised his players for keeping their foot on the gas as they mercilessly thrashed relegation-threatened Rotherham 5-0.

It was an emphatic first win in six games for the Posh, for whom 20-year-old forward David Kamara scored his first two goals and Archie Collins dictated proceedings from midfield.

While Rotherham are in the middle of a major injury crisis, the way they subsided at the Weston Homes Stadium only increased the likelihood of them dropping out of Sky Bet League One as they are now six points adrift of safety.

Williams said: “The determination to both defend and run back and do the nitty gritty stuff but then the desire to keep running forward, to keep trying to create chances, I’m very, very happy with that.

“Aiming to score early is a great way to approach a game like this because both sides haven’t been in particularly good form and often these games become like a stalemate.

“But we really approached it in such a positive way and that’s why they’ve got what they deserved, the players.

“I’ve seen David score penalties for the second team not too long ago, actually.

“I watched him take one in exactly the same manner, with the same preparation, the same convincing thump of the ball.

“But I loved that from PK (captain Peter Kioso), that was excellent. He’s got the armband on and no silliness, he just made the decision [for Kamara to take them].”

Peterborough led 2-0 at half-time as Kyrell Lisbie’s 14th goal of the season was added to by Jimmy-Jay Morgan’s header from Collins’ free-kick.

Substitute Kamara opened his Posh account with two penalties in the space of eight minutes in the second half before Collins finished the rout with a neat finish.

Rotherham boss Matt Hamshaw said: “It’s difficult to come out here and defend any player tonight.

“I won’t be throwing my players under the bus, but at the same time the performance levels have to massively increase.

“We gave a really good Bolton team a great game on Saturday and then we’ve produced that.

“There are reasons for that tonight – we’ve obviously had to change personnel, that’s forced our hand, I’ve got a real young bench, I’ve got about 14 first-team players who weren’t here tonight.

“But that still does not legislate for that lack of passion, drive, whatever we call it.

“When I took this job, I knew it was going to be a difficult remit, I knew this season was going to be a tough season, but did I envisage it going as it has? No, I didn’t.

“We’ve had too many key players out for too long this season and that’s certainly bitten us tonight.”