Peterhead manager Jim McInally hopes his players will get the respect they are due after they claimed a Premiership scalp for the second year running in the Betfred Cup.
Rory McAllister’s last-minute penalty gave the Blue Toon victory against Hearts at Balmoor Stadium last night and McInally hailed his players’ performance.
He said: “You don’t get respected at our level. Even at Dunfermline on Saturday no one was interested in us after the game and today all I read in the press was the Hearts manager talking about his players and he never mentioned Peterhead once.
“I told the players to let Hearts know they had been in a game and now they know.”
McInally feared his side’s chance of a famous win was slipping away as the Blue Toon tired in the closing stages against their full-time opponents.
He said: “I said at half-time I felt we could win the game but we tired badly in the last 10 minutes and I was worried we had lost our chance.
“But some great play down the left from Rory was followed by a cutback to Jordon Brown, who did what he does in making a run into the box which led to him being fouled for the penalty.”
The home side made a great start when Willie Gibson’s delivery found Brown unmarked and he rose high to head the ball into the net from eight yards to give Peterhead a sixth-minute lead.
Hearts equalised in the 17th minute when Michael Smith beat Jamie Stevenson in a race for the ball down the right before crossing for Kyle Lafferty, who flicked the ball past Greg Fleming from six yards.
There was little in the way of goalmouth action in the second half but Hearts increased the pressure on the Peterhead goal in the final 10 minutes and they went close to a winner with Jamie Walker’s header from a corner hitting Stevenson before rebounding off the crossbar.
With the match heading for penalties there was late drama when Brown was tripped in the box by Arnaud Djoum and McAllister netted from the spot to secure a famous win for the home side. It was Hearts’ first defeat of the campaign and will once again lead to questions being asked of head coach Ian Cathro after his side’s poor end to last season.
Cathro said: “I’m not going to stop the criticism so I’ll let it be. We’re disappointed and we expect to do better. We didn’t start particularly well and it allowed Peterhead to be motivated and keep pushing.
“We need to make better decisions to ensure we create opportunities and take them.
“We know now we have to win the game against Dunfermline on Saturday.”