Third goal hurt more than the first
Peterhead manager Jim McInally was disappointed that his side failed to build on Hamish Ritchie’s goal that brought Cove Rangers into sight as The Blue Toon side went down 5-2 at the Balmoral Stadium home of League 1 leaders Cove Rangers.
Jim said: “We made quite a bright start to the game however we gave away the lead cheaply when Cove got an early penalty. Scott Brown is adamant that he did not foul their player but his challenge put the referee into a position where he had to make a decision and that went against us.”
“They scored again quickly and I was beginning to think the game was going to be like the last one down here where we simply never showed up. We never landed a glove on Cove in that one but to the players’ credit they recovered from that start and played themselves into this game.”
“Hamish Ritchie, who I thought was excellent all day, got us back into things with a fine goal. At that point I felt that we would go on and make a real fist of it. However, to let a third goal in so quickly after giving ourselves a platform was really disappointing. That hurt more than the loss of the first goal.”
“It came from a ricochet that fell into Harry Milne’s path, and I have to say that he is an outstanding player for Cove, so luck was against us at that point. “
We could have gone into our shells at that point however we continued to try and play football. We did not defend well enough and we did not turn them enough going forward but we kept on trying to play the right way and that is important.”
The Peterhead camp is split into two today with McInally taking a squad in a charity fundraiser against Peterhead United at Raemoss Park with a noon kick-off https://peterheadfc.co.uk/2022/03/04/peterhead-make-it-seven-in-seven-for-peterhead-united-this-sunday/
and assistant boss David Nicholls along with Alan Cook and Gary Fraser playing in a charity match for https://backonside.co.uk/
Jim said: “It is good that we have these two events as we will have a good chat about yesterday and ensure that any disappointment does not linger.”
